Andrea S. Pecoraro

Andrea was born on Staten Island on January 8, 1947 to Sophie (Bernice) and Louis Natale. She married John H. Pecoraro in 1967. Andrea and John raised four children, John Jr., Lara, Andrea, and Alyse. She received a bachelor’s degree from Wagner College and a master’s degree from the College of Staten Island. She served as a middle school teacher for the NYC Department of Education, retiring from I.S. 2 in Grant City in 2004.

Andrea met John, also a teacher, when she arrived as a student teacher at his classroom at New Dorp High School. There had been an ongoing debate between Andrea and John about their courtship. John maintains his claim that Andrea “chased him around New Dorp High School,” but his children will point simply to pictures of them from that time--Andrea, a recent Miss Staten Island pageant runner up, was strikingly beautiful. While the true story may never be settled, Andrea loved John dearly and spent her life with him doing so much of what she loved -- dancing, sharing spectacular feasts, and traveling with friends and family.

Andrea was a woman of incredible strength. She battled health issues for a long time, including multiple cancers. In 2012, after esophageal cancer metastasized in her brain, doctors predicted she would live for only about a year. This was a diagnosis grounded in science and evidence and experience and the unfortunate outcome for most in her condition. But her family shares that science does not account well for superpowers. Doctors did not know (yet) what her family knew--that Andrea was a superhero. Her strength and will were no match for science and she lived on to continue to love and share joy with her still-growing family. She lived to see two more grandchildren come into the world and to continue to celebrate life with her four children and ten grandchildren.

Andrea’s children playfully called their mother “the Director” because when it came to making plans as adults--whether planning a trip, or just figuring out a weekday dinner--she was in constant communication with her four children and their spouses, gathering information and making suggestions. What she was doing was what she had always--managing the needs and wants of a dozen people at once, trying her best to make everyone happy. As the matriarch of the family, she felt a deep sense of responsibility to that, and she did it exceptionally well. Her husband, John, has always said that she was his “rock,” that she anchored the home and family.

Andrea loved so joyfully and abundantly -- especially her children and grandchildren. Her love was unwavering and unconditional and playful. Her children recall that she gave these great big tight hugs that were exactly what they needed in the moment -- they could express pride, comfort sadness, assuage fears, or amplify shared joy in a moment.

Her youngest daughter, Alyse, shares: “While we are heartbroken that she has physically left this earth, she will always be with us. I see my mom in each of my three siblings--something I saw with much more clarity in the last 24 hours when we found ourselves in the same room for the first time in a year and a half. I see her strength and perseverance in my brother, John; her sense of responsibility and her superpower for making the seemingly impossible happen in my sister Lara; and in Andrea, her deep sensitivity and unwavering love -- not to mention her beautiful face.”

Andrea lives on in all four of her children and her ten grandchildren in their quirky humor, their commitment to family, their love of music and dancing, and their proclivity for providing nourishment and celebration in times of joy and sadness (they all love to throw a great party and feed the people they love).

In addition to her husband, John, and her four children, Andrea is survived by ten grandchildren--John Robert, Juliana, Amanda, John Henry, Geovanna, Ava, Sophia, Gianna, Giorgio, and Lucia.

FAMILY REQUESTS THAT ALL VISITORS WEAR MASKS TO THE VISITATION AND

FUNERAL MASS .