Helen (Grozio) Slusark

Helen Slusark, at the age of 95, passed away on Tuesday, January 2, 2019 at home. The former Helen Grozio, she was born on January 21, 1923 in Nanticoke, PA. 

Helen lived and worked in New York City in the late 1930s.  After Pearl Harbor, she moved to New Jersey to work in a defense plant.  Helen also worked at Bamberger’s Department Store in Newark and the Wilson Jones Co. in Elizabeth for many years, before retiring in 1975.  After retirement, she remained active in the community, volunteering with the Elizabeth Police Department, and the food pantry and soup kitchen of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Elizabeth, NJ. Helen was a member of St John Vianney RC Catholic Church in Colonia and St Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in Elizabeth where she sang in the choir.

Helen was predeceased by her husband of forty-seven years, Walter Slusark, and her brothers Michael, John and sister Mary. Helen is survived by her son Walter and wife Dianne, of Edison; her daughter Joanne Steen Wood and husband Tom, of Virginia Beach, VA; grandchildren Amy Dunphy (Michael), Doug Slusark (Greer), Emily Tallman (Jason), and Elizabeth Tybus (Drew), and great- grandchildren, Max, Zoe, Will, and Julia.  She is also survived by two brothers, William Grozio, of Elizabeth, NJ, and Theodore Grozio, of Milltown, NJ; brother-in-law Henry Slusarczyk, of Avoca, PA, and sister-in-law Jean Slusark McCloskey, of Fort Myers, FL; an abundance of nieces and nephews, and her life-long friend, Betty Miller of Milltown, NJ.

Visitation is on Friday, January 4, 2019 from 4 to 7 pm at the Gosselin Funeral Home, 660 New Dover Road, Edison, NJ.  Services will be held of Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 7:45 at the funeral home followed by a 9:00 am Mass at St John Vianney RC Church, Colonia NJ.  Entombment to follow in St. Gertrude Cemetery, Colonia.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Helen’s memory to Vincentian Congregation of the Mission Ministries at www.cmeast.org.

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