Laura A. Sammarco

Laura A. Sammarco

Hackensack - SAMMARCO, Laura A., 86, Hackensack, NJ, died peacefully at her daughter's home on Monday, July 23, 2018, surrounded by family.

Laura grew up in Kearney, NJ. She and her husband, Carl, raised their family at the Jersey Shore where they developed a large community of friends and colleagues. However, she talks about the two years they lived in Germany as a most wonderful experience.

Laura spent her life as a loving elementary school teacher, restauranteur and, most importantly, a mother and grandmother. She gave her children the rare privilege of never coming home to an empty house and never going to school with an average lunch. Even though they owned a restaurant, Laura cooked gourmet dinners herself almost every night for her family. She and Carl were passionate about the family eating together. Her pies were legendary among family and friends, not just because they were delicious, but because she was always willing to whip one out at 6 am to bring it wherever it was needed. All her children's friends had their favorite cookie because she mailed them to her kids at college week after week.

While food was often at the center of her typical Italian-American lifestyle, it was Laura's generosity of spirit and time that made her special to so many. Even decades later, she still talked about the young children she taught. She followed the lives not only of her nieces, nephews, and cousins but the friends of her children who thought of her house as a second home. Each of her four grandchildren had their own, special relationship with her, and she loved them more than anything in the world. Her brother, Ron, was her bright, shining light from the day he was born.

Laura is predeceased by her mother, Phyllis, father, Ben, and husband, Carl. She is survived by her four children, Maria-Rose, Laura-Anne, Carl and Michele, Maria-Rose's husband Ralph, Carl's wife Jill, her brother Ron and her four grandchildren. Donations can be made in her name to German Shepherd Rescue of New Jersey www.gsrnj.org or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital www.stjude.org/donate . A memorial gathering will be held at Maria-Rose's home in Hackensack, NJ on August 25th from 3pm to 7pm.