Ann DiNapoli, 95, of Ithaca, NY, died peacefully on March 28 at Brookdale Ithaca. Ann was born in 1927 in New York City to John and Jessie Albert. The first half of her life was spent on Long Island, where, in 1948, she married Richard, son of Vito and Giovanna DiNapoli.

     Ann most treasured her role as mother to the seven children she and Dick raised, primarily in North Babylon on Long Island. After Dick’s premature death in 1975, Ann worked at Woodbury Nursing Home and quickly acquired bookkeeping skills that allowed her to support her four youngest children still at home. In 1982, Ann moved her family to Syracuse, NY, where she found work at the Caring Coalition, later known as Hospice of Central New York. She also began a long and devoted association with the Franciscan Associates of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neuman Communities.

     After a brief stint working at an inn on Block Island to satisfy her longing to be near the ocean again, Ann returned to a long and active retirement in Syracuse. She loved to travel, and made countless trips to visit friends and family all over the world. Ann remained very involved in her Franciscan community as well as the church communities she was part of through the years, particularly St. Lucy’s Catholic Church in Syracuse. Nearly to the end of her years in Ithaca, she maintained a bright, vital presence among us, even as her physical capabilities ebbed. Her good nature, abundant generosity and wisdom touched the lives of all who knew her.

     Ann has been pre-deceased by her husband and two brothers, Walter and John Albert, Jr. She is survived by her sister Patricia Forbes; her children: Richard (m. Teresa Buckley), Jennifer (m. Dale Johnson), Robert (m. Carolyn Masel), Judith (m. Michael Poremba), Jeanne (m. Dennis Nagel), Jill (m. Frank Sibilla), and Ronald (m. Susan Hill); her grandchildren: Andrew Johnson (m. Sunny Park) and Anna (m. David Bluestone); Jonathan, Miriam (m. Lily Ingram) and Rebecca DiNapoli; Michael, Samantha and Sydney Poremba; Douglas and Sabrina Nagel; Emma (m. Michael Vogel) and Eric Sibilla; and Christopher, Alexander and Nicholas DiNapoli; her five great-grandchildren: Lena, Ari and Felicity Bluestone and Aurelia and Vincent Johnson; and many nieces and nephews.

     In a final act of generosity, Ann donated her body to the Anatomical Gift Program at Upstate Medical University. A public memorial service will take place at a later date. Ann’s family would like to offer heartfelt thanks to the staff at Brookdale Ithaca for their loving care over the past four years, and especially over the last few weeks of Ann’s life, when their sensitive attendance, along with the nurses and staff at Hospicare, lent comfort and dignity to Ann’s final days.

     Memorial contributions can be made to the Brookdale Associates’ Holiday Fund, 103 Bundy Road, Ithaca NY 14850, to Hospicare at hospicare.org, or to the Sisters of St. Francis at sosf.org.