Dorothy Nelson Kelly's Obituary
Dorothy N. Kelly, age 83 of Rehoboth Beach, DE passed away on Thursday, October 8, 2020, at Beebe Healthcare, in Lewes, DE. She was born Wednesday, June 23, 1937 in Manhattan, NY, daughter of the late, James T. Nelson and Teresa George.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her life partner of 56 years, Thomas F. Kelly. She is survived by three sons: James, Thomas, and John; their life partners respectively Donna, Ahmed, and Anita. She was blessed with five grandchildren: Dawn and her life partner Michael, Ryan, Shannon, Francis, and Thomas; and three great grandchildren: Jace, Savannah, and Brynn.
Dorothy was born and raised on the west side of Manhattan where she lived with her extended Italian immigrant family and her three sister-cousins, Eleanor, Marian, and Joan. She attended the prestigious NYC high school Julia Richmond. Graduating in three years in 1954, she worked as a secretary in a Manhattan bank. She lived with her parents in a tenement for 19 years until she met and married her sweetheart, Thomas Francis Kelly on June 2nd, 1957. After marriage she as a new mother and wife to a NYC police cadet moved to the Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood into the fourth floor of a five story walk up and then, on Valentine’s Day in 1968, to a single family home in the Queens neighborhood of Glendale where she would spend the next 45 years of her life raising her family and working at several jobs. Her last job before retiring was as a administrative assistant at the Transit Workers Union in NYC.
Marriages, grandkids and life's comings and goings all took place under her loving eyes and witty sense of humor. Then after the death of her beloved Tom in December 2012, she moved at 75-years of age to Delaware to start a new part of her life. Arriving extremely frail and severely unwell she, as she herself would say, 'shook the dust off herself' and regained a new sense of independence away from the burdens of lone caregiving and the constant presence and commitments of day to day family life. She set out to make friends, become part of a new church, and a new community.
After a period of health recovery, she joined multiple senior centers, bought, furnished, and sold a condominium and came to purchase at age 79-years her own home in her own name for the first time in her life. Through learning Facebook, she became a popular 'girl around town'. Asked many times about her accent she would turn the inquiry around and retort: 'I don't have an accent but let me ask you something: Where is your accent from?' Depending on the recipient she either got an honest-to-goodness hardy laugh, a stilled deer-caught-in-the-headlight response, or an elitist dismissive eye-roll.
Dorothy was a person of deep religious faith that she lived out each day without judgement or piety through acts of goodwill and praying the rosary at least daily. She personally practiced many acts of quiet charity and then in her later years, burdened with a multitude of overbearing complex chronic medical conditions, she carried on with the fortitude of a soldier warrior and carried that fight into the community of assisted living, endured the indignity of the Covid crisis to those living in Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Facilities and then ultimately at the age of 83 years into hospice care where she continued her daily exercise regimen and rosary right up to the very end.
Throughout her life's journey Dorothy provided countless advice, counsel, monies, time, transportation, and even shelter to family and friends in need. She carried on the goodness of her life never asking for acknowledgement or recognition. In this week, her last breath drawn, her light has dimmed but her glow lives within us. May Dorothy rest in peace.
Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, at 4:30 PM at Parsell Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Atkins-Lodge Chapel, 16961 Kings Highway, Lewes, DE, where friends may call beginning at 3:00 PM. If you do not wish to attend, you can view the services via live streaming at the following link: http://www.parsellfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/permalink/9674289/LTWebcast
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, October 17, 2020 at 10:30 AM at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 84-05 78th Ave, Glendale, NY 11385. Burial will follow mass at St. John Cemetery, Middle Village, NY.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing protocols must be observed, and masks must be worn by everyone participating in any aspect of the services.
Memorial contributions may be made in Dorothy’s name to the charity of your choice.
Please sign Dorothy's online guest book on this tribute page.
FLORIST NOTE: PLEASE DELIVER ALL ARRANGEMENTS BY 11AM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2020 TO OUR LEWES LOCATION.
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