Irene DiYanni

DiYANNI (CAMININI) Irene (Caminini) DiYanni's parents, Perina and Angelo, and her two older brothers, Geno and Aldo, came from Italy to the U.S. through Ellis Island and settled in New Jersey. Irene entered this world on September 5, 1925. She grew up speaking Italian in her home and only learned English when she started school at five years old. Since many of her friends were Italian, she continued to speak Italian long into adulthood. Irene attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, then Lodi High School, from which she graduated in 1942. She then attended Hackensack Hospital School of Nursing as a Navy Cadet. The Second World War ended before she had to serve her commission. She worked as a Registered Nurse in the Operating Room of Hackensack Hospital, the same place where she was born. She was introduced to Henry DiYanni by his sister Margie, a nurse Irene met in nursing school. They were married in Lodi on December 8, 1946, and bought a house in Rochelle Park. Soon after her wedding she quit nursing and busied herself in the next 21 years bearing and raising 12 children, 11 of whom are still living. The eldest, Karen, went to be with the Lord in 1995. In 1951, she moved to a house that Henry built in Lodi; in 1959, she moved with six kids to Dover, first into a 200 year old house without plumbing, and then into a couple of new houses that Henry built. In 1973, she and Henry moved to Gouverneur, New York with their 6 youngest kids, the older 6 having grown and gone. She and Henry lived in New York for ten years, until they moved to Columbus, Ohio, where they have lived ever since. In addition to Henry and her children, Irene loved having pets, usual and unusual: various cats and dogs, hamsters and mice, a semi-tame Peruvian cavi, and an outrageous, never-to-be-domesticated squirrel monkey she affectionately named Jasper. At all times, in all places, Irene loved God, whom she joined in person on November 8, 2006, leaving her loving husband, Henry (just one month shy of their 60th anniversary); 11 children, Barbara, Henry, Elizabeth, David, Denise, Daniel, Judy, Mary, Margaret, Philip and Ray and their spouses; 34 grandchildren, 5 great-grandchildren, 34 nieces and nephews, and 24 grandnieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly. Her family will receive friends Sunday, November 12, from 4-6 p.m. at the Vineyard Community Church, 15187 Palmer Road, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, where her funeral will be Monday at 1 p.m., her interment will follow at Glen Rest Memorial Estate. Her arrangements are being cared for by the COTNER FUNERAL HOME, Reynoldsburg. Messages may be sent to the family at www.cotnerfuneralhome.com