Deborah A. Byrne

Deborah A. Byrne

Loving Submitted by her Daughter: Deborah Alexandra Byrne, better known as Mom or Debbie, passed away at Inspira Hospital in Vineland, NJ, on the First Day of Spring, March 20, 2021, after a brief illness. She left this world listening to loud music with her daughter Melissa holding her hand. The family will be forever grateful for the attentive care she received from the Inspira doctors and nurses, who are proudly represented by HPAE-AFT.

The most important thing in Debbie's life was her daughter. Debbie worked hard to ensure she had an incredible childhood and life. When her daughter was five, she got a job with the State of New Jersey. She worked at the Vineland Developmental Center and then Ancora Hospital for over 30 years. She was a member of AFSCME and CWA. Thanks to her union, she had job security, health insurance, and a pension, which enabled her to retire in 2015.. A single mom, she routinely held a second job to give her daughter all she could. Her favorite was waiting tables at her dear friend Michael's restaurant, Aunt Pearl's.

Working two jobs didn't faze Debbie. She co-led her daughter's Girl Scout troop, teaching her how sell cookies door-to-door in her little red wagon. She volunteered for over a decade with the NJ Special Olympics. She helped her daughter consistently win any school fundraisers, and shuttled her between soccer, softball, swim, and friends. When her job was transferred to Ancora in Hammonton, she carpooled with a friend so her daughter could use the car for school each day of Senior year. Her siblings eventually stopped giving her gift cards for her birthday because she would use them to buy surprise toys or sundresses for her daughter, instead of spending them on herself.

Debbie would say "yes" to anyone struggling who knocked on the door asking for handy work or odd jobs—always paying whatever money she had in her pocket. One Christmas, when a homeless man knocked on the door asking to do work as she sat down for dinner, she made him a plate and gave him money.

Her daughter Melissa inherited her generosity and passion for fighting injustice. Debbie loved Joe Biden, but voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 New Jersey primary to support her daughter, who worked on both the 2016 and 2020 Bernie campaigns (but she clicked every donate link she got by email for Biden starting in the primary.). Like millions of other Americans, she breathed a huge sigh of relief when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the general election and cheered loudly from her living room on Inauguration Day. More than anything, Debbie liked being home with her family and friends. For the final nine months of her life, she was able to see her daughter 24/7 as she quarantined on her couch. She had the greenest thumb, cared for cats as if they were humans, and cultivated a late-life backyard birding habit with a special love for mourning doves and cardinals.

Debbie was born in Seneca Falls, NY on June 15,1955 to Norma and Robert Byrne. She is survived by her "poockie-ochie" daughter Melissa, sister Karen, brothers Ralph (Kathy), Kevin (Tricia), her godson/nephew Kyle, nieces Shannan, Jennifer, Laura, and Diana. She is also mourned by kindergarten to lifelong best friend Terry, dear friends Paula, Ginny, Sharon, and Gladys, and many great-nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, aunt Barbara "Bing", sister Barbara, and nephew Stephen. Debbie's death was both adjacent to and wrapped in the Covid crisis. Fearing Covid due to her comorbidities, she was scared to go to the emergency room and first went to an urgent care instead, which misdiagnosed her. After finally going to the hospital, she spent her last days with one person at a time instead of having a room packed with family and friends. All because some folks refuse to follow basic science for political spite. Please join the family for a viewing on Friday, March 26, from 11am to 12pm at Pancoast Funeral Home, 676 South Main Road Vineland, NJ 08360. Strict Covid-safe protocols will be followed. In the summer, when small groups can safely gather, her family will hold a memorial service and scatter her ashes in Cayuga Lake, her forever favorite place. To honor Debbie, and in lieu of flowers, please wear a mask, wash hands, socially distance, and vaccinate. Donate Bluetooth speakers to your local ICU to help patients have a more comforting experience and have speaker calls with family. Her family is giving ten sets to Inspira Hospital in Vineland as a start to this project. Consider chipping in as a founding donor to We, the 45M, an organization dedicated to winning student loan cancellation, a cause Debbie's daughter has devoted her career to and of which Debbie herself was incredibly proud and supportive link: www. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/we-the-45m

Her daughter will miss her to the moon and back and forever and ever. She made raising a daughter as a single mom look like a breeze by building a community and doing everything and then some. She does not want to say goodbye or end writing this excessively long (but in reality, incredibly short) note on her mom's life. Just remember, as Debbie's favorite movie taught us, that every time you hear a bell ring, an angel gets their wings - and it's always a wonderful life. Debbie took Covid incredibly seriously. Please double mask up, socially distance, hand sanitize, and get your shot. If you have vaccine or mask- hesitant people in your life, call or text them. Talk and text some sense into them. (Friend-to-friend messages are the most persuasive.)

Do this so that you never have to experience a tragedy while navigating Covid protocols. Do this so no other family has to mourn masked, distanced, and in fear. Do this for Debbie - so that we can all hug again. To e-mail condolences, please visit, www.pancoastfuneralhome.com