RIP - Helene M. Mellon
This last Saturday, i got a call from my dad in the middle of the afternoon. I don't get many calls from him unless it is birthday or holiday related.
He informed me that my Aunt, his sister, passed away in her sleep Thursday night. She was 60 at the time. My dad just got a letter from her saying how great things were, all the warm weather Upstate NY had been having, about her working in her garden/flowers, etc etc. This came out of nowhere. Probably really similar to my friends dad who passed away right after Thanksgiving last year. I even saw him that weekend, he was in great spirits one day, dead of a heart attack the next.
My dad left this morning to fly out to Albany, NY and drive 2 hours to Rome, instead of Syracuse, because there weren't as many flights for some reason. Maybe because of Spring break or March Madness?
I wish I had gotten the flight out with him for $430 on sat when I was looking at them. yesterday it was up to 530 in the morning and 630 by late afternoon. sigh. The last two times I saw that side of the family was when my Grandma passed away a few years ago and then my grandma a year before that. The funeral service is in the same church that my grandparents was in.
It is kinda sad in a way when you only see relatives when someone dies or gets married.
I saw my Aunt some here and some there. nothing like my mom's side of the family that i see all the time since everyone lives in Colorado or Kansas, instead of Upstate NY, Virgina, Florida and Atlanta like my Dad's side of the family.
I'm still sad she is gone, and sad for everyone that is in pain for her passing.
She'll be in my thoughts.
I found the obituary in the Rome Sentinel
CANTON - Helene M. Mellon, 60, of Canton, N.Y., passed away peacefully at her home on Friday, March 19, 2010. She was born June 5, 1949 in Rome, N.Y., a daughter of Stanley and Marie Luberda Sidelko. Helene graduated from VVS High School and received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from SUNY Geneseo and then went on to earn a master’s degree from SUNY Cortland in business administration. She was proud and privileged to have achieved the title of Assistant Superintendent of the Bennington, Vermont school district. In 2005, she accepted the position as Director of Instruction and Staff Development for the St. Lawrence and Lewis County B.O.C.E.S. in Canton, N.Y.
Helene was the loving mother of a son, Rick Mellon, of Atlanta, GA; and a daughter, Karri Benedict of Rome, who were both honored to call her Mother and their best friend. She is also survived by three brothers and their wives, Stephen (Roswitha) Sidelko, FL, John (Barbara) Sidelko, CO, Robert (Phyllis) Sidelko, VA; four grandsons, Brandon, Nick, Tyler and Mickey; and several nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Transfiguration Church. Friends and family are invited to call at Strong and Burns Funeral Home, 401 N. George Street, Rome, on Tuesday from 5-8 p.m. Interment will take place in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Rome Rescue Mission.
He informed me that my Aunt, his sister, passed away in her sleep Thursday night. She was 60 at the time. My dad just got a letter from her saying how great things were, all the warm weather Upstate NY had been having, about her working in her garden/flowers, etc etc. This came out of nowhere. Probably really similar to my friends dad who passed away right after Thanksgiving last year. I even saw him that weekend, he was in great spirits one day, dead of a heart attack the next.
My dad left this morning to fly out to Albany, NY and drive 2 hours to Rome, instead of Syracuse, because there weren't as many flights for some reason. Maybe because of Spring break or March Madness?
I wish I had gotten the flight out with him for $430 on sat when I was looking at them. yesterday it was up to 530 in the morning and 630 by late afternoon. sigh. The last two times I saw that side of the family was when my Grandma passed away a few years ago and then my grandma a year before that. The funeral service is in the same church that my grandparents was in.
It is kinda sad in a way when you only see relatives when someone dies or gets married.
I saw my Aunt some here and some there. nothing like my mom's side of the family that i see all the time since everyone lives in Colorado or Kansas, instead of Upstate NY, Virgina, Florida and Atlanta like my Dad's side of the family.
I'm still sad she is gone, and sad for everyone that is in pain for her passing.
She'll be in my thoughts.
I found the obituary in the Rome Sentinel
CANTON - Helene M. Mellon, 60, of Canton, N.Y., passed away peacefully at her home on Friday, March 19, 2010. She was born June 5, 1949 in Rome, N.Y., a daughter of Stanley and Marie Luberda Sidelko. Helene graduated from VVS High School and received a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from SUNY Geneseo and then went on to earn a master’s degree from SUNY Cortland in business administration. She was proud and privileged to have achieved the title of Assistant Superintendent of the Bennington, Vermont school district. In 2005, she accepted the position as Director of Instruction and Staff Development for the St. Lawrence and Lewis County B.O.C.E.S. in Canton, N.Y.
Helene was the loving mother of a son, Rick Mellon, of Atlanta, GA; and a daughter, Karri Benedict of Rome, who were both honored to call her Mother and their best friend. She is also survived by three brothers and their wives, Stephen (Roswitha) Sidelko, FL, John (Barbara) Sidelko, CO, Robert (Phyllis) Sidelko, VA; four grandsons, Brandon, Nick, Tyler and Mickey; and several nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Transfiguration Church. Friends and family are invited to call at Strong and Burns Funeral Home, 401 N. George Street, Rome, on Tuesday from 5-8 p.m. Interment will take place in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Rome Rescue Mission.