Josephine R. Wells' Obituary
Josephine Ruggeri Wells lived a life full of love, faith, service, and devotion. Devotion to God and devotion to her family and friends, who all loved her. "Your mother is an angel!" her sons would often hear people proclaim.
After a brief illness, Josephine died on a Tuesday morning, March 13, 2018, in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia after suffering a stroke.
Josephine's illness actually began with a severe heart attack and liver failure. However, those conditions inexplicably reversed themselves, and the bewildered doctors reported that her liver and heart functions were back to normal and actually stronger than most people half her age!
This apparent miracle was the last in what was a series of remarkable accomplishments in Josephine's long and storied life.
Josephine's lifetime of service began when she became a Registered Nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey in 1942.
Her nursing career spanned half a century, and included all aspects of nursing from hospital work with premature babies and general surgery, to private duty, and also playing a key role in the National Institutes of Health study on infant mortality in Appalachia.
During that high-profile national study, Josephine often found herself riding the backwoods in jeeps and crossing rivers on log bridges.
During WWII, Josephine became an industrial nurse at an aircraft plant and it was there that she met and fell in love with her husband to be, the dashing John C. Wells of Kentucky.
"John kept coming into my office for pills and band-aides until I finally figured out he had an ulterior motive," Josephine explained.
The last 25 years of Josephine's career was spent as a school nurse at Garfield Park East elementary school in Willingboro, which resulted in devoted generations of students who, later in life, would delight in stealing another hug from their beloved school nurse they had grown up with.
Her nursing career allowed Josephine to send her three sons through college after she was widowed at the young age of 43.
Returning to school in her fifties, Josephine earned a BS in health from Trenton State, a Master Degree in Special Education with a teaching certificate and a Masters of Science in Psychology from Glassboro College.
Josephine's abiding faith led her to also become a lay nun in the order of Saint Francis.
Deviling into local politics in her late 80’s, Josephine led a successful grassroots campaign which defeated an unwanted development and saved the habitat of an endangered Cooper’s hawk family.
She was preceded in death by her husband, John C. Wells, her two brothers, Emilio and John, and by her two sisters, Grace and Mary.
It was sister Mary who quipped that she wanted to come back as one of Josephine's animals so she too could get the royal treatment that Josephine gave to all her four-legged friends.
Josephine is survived by her three sons, John, James, and Joseph, and their wives, Diane and Charissa, and partner Cheryl. Her three grandchildren--Taylor, Joseph, and Wesley--were her pride and joy.
Visitation will be held on Sunday, March 18, at Givnish Funeral Home at 1200 Rt. 130 North from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
Funeral mass will be held at 12 noon on Monday, March 19, at Queen of the Universe Church located at 2443 Trenton Road, Levittown, PA..
Burial will occur at Monument Cemetery, Beverly, New Jersey at approximately 1:45 PM.
We are each of us given the gift of life, but sooner or later, we all have to give it back. Josephine's gift began on July 18, 1920 when she was born in a home delivery in a farmhouse on Bridgeboro Road in Edgewater Park, New Jersey.
Her mother, Rose Ruggeri (nee Pisa), and Antonio Ruggeri, were hard working Italian immigrants. Josephine and her siblings grew up with hard farm work and abundant family affection.
Josephine held tightly to her gift of life for 97 years before reluctantly returning it. But, the greater truth is that those of us who knew her are the true recipients of a gift. The rarest possible gift of having had Josephine for our mother, sister, brother, and friend.
What’s your fondest memory of Josephine?
What’s a lesson you learned from Josephine?
Share a story where Josephine's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Josephine you’ll never forget.
How did Josephine make you smile?
