Josephine Kosko

1913 - 2018

Josephine Kosko

Josephine Kosko, a true matriarch, passed away in peace on April 20, 2018, pleased to be on a path to the Lord. She was 104 years old. What a remarkable life. What a remarkable woman. Josephine was born in Fayette City, PA, on August 16, 1913. Her parents, Lawrence and Mary Szpunar, had emigrated several years earlier from Poland in search of better opportunities. When Jo was one year old, her mother went back to Poland to tend to her ailing grandmother, taking Jo along while Lawrence remained to earn a living as a coal miner. World War I broke out, and Jo and her mother could not return to the US until the war ended. When they reunited with Lawrence in 1919, the family grew. Sisters Joan and Ann and brother Stanley were born and the family moved to Allison, PA, as the Great Depression arrived. In her teen-age years Jo helped raise her younger siblings, and when she graduated from high school she set out on her own for Passaic, NJ, to find work. She found it first as a housekeeper, then in a position in a handkerchief factory. Then, she met Albert Eugene Kosko at a tennis match. For them, it was a perfect match. They married in 1938, and bought a home on Crescent Road in Wallington. During World War II, she and "Gil" began to raise a family while Jo worked at Curtis Wright as a foreperson in the cylinder department for the engine of the B29 bomber. They had three sons, Lawrence, Robert, and Paul, all of whom survive her and cherish her memory. As the war came to a close, her sisters and brother moved to the area, and settled in on Crescent Road where they lived for decades amongst each other in houses that were across the street and next to one another. Later, they were joined by her parents. When Gil became bedridden late in life, she spent nine years lovingly attending to him at home. They were married for 61 years. Jo lived in that home on Crescent Road nearly until the day she died. Jo was a caring wife, sister, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, who strove for the good of her family with unaltering determination. She could be stern and strict, but she loved her sons and family and was particularly proud of her great grandchildren. She was a devout Roman Catholic and a founding member and loyal parishioner of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. So religious was she, Jo once taught her parakeet Spunky to say "Father Gorski." She enjoyed baking Polish desserts, watching the Yankees on TV, and listening to the music of Mantovani. She took delight in the beauty of irises and roses, and loved to travel, treasuring especially her visits to the Holy Land, the Canyonlands, and, of course, Poland. The Bible says Moses lived to one hundred twenty years old, "yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated." The same can almost be said for Jo, who at the age of nearly one hundred and five could still describe in detail the wonders of the village near Lublin, Poland, where she grew up a century ago. God bless her. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral on Tuesday 10:30 AM, from the Kamienski Funeral Home, 106 Locust Avenue, Wallington. The internment will take place St. Michael's Cemetery, South Hackensack, and visiting will prior to services from 9:30 - 10:30 AM. Please visit www.kamienskifh.com