Eugene passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by his three daughters Mary, Elizabeth and Jeanine.  Gene just celebrated his 57 year wedding anniversary this week with his wife Elizabeth who passed away in 2003.  He was born in NYC to Albert and Alice and is survived by his siblings Elizabeth (Betty), Albert (Bucky), and John (Jack).  Gene and his wife Liz moved to Massapequa in 1973 where they raised their three girls known as the “redheads”.  As his daughters got married he was fortunate to have all three girls living within 3 blocks of him.  Gene worked for the NYC Sanitation Department in Queens, NY until his retirement and continued to work a second job delivering newspapers throughout NYC at his second job.  He had a passion for NYC history and the streets of NY. He read the NY Post and Daily News every single day of his life. He loved to clip coupons and save a dollar. He would buy gallons of ice cream and eat it every night with cool whip.  His other passion was scratch off lottery tickets and he would win quite often.  He was a simple man that would ask for receipts and give exact change to the person who did his shopping. He loved to watch television and would often call his daughters to talk about new shows on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. His daughters would have to come over often and give him a tutorial about how to access his WIFI and television remote. He liked to text his family on his flip phone and end with “please respond”. If you didn’t respond, you would then get a phone call from him. We are going to miss him and his big personality.  Even at 83 years old he had a strong personality and never gave up hope.  He raised his girls with a great deal of faith and it got us through a tough few years. People described him as a “character”.  Gene was known for his storing telling abilities. He liked to tell stories from the past and get a chuckle from anyone around him until the day he died.  He also gave people nicknames and was pretty clever when he thought of them.  He loved living in his home and shared friendships with his NYC crew for over 60 years. He had a deep connection to the Irish and Belgian culture given his parents roots.  On Sunday’s he would listen to Irish Music as he read the papers.  He loved his home and valued his neighbors.  He cherished his family which included many nieces and nephews: the DeRudder, Barbieri, Fichtl and Sheehy kids.  He is survived by his daughter Mary and son in law Kevin Callaghan, Elizabeth and husband Patrick O’Connell and Jeanine and husband Brendan Fitzpatrick.  He will be missed by his grandchildren Meghan, Erin, Catherine, Sean, Maeve, and Brigid.  He had a stash of m&m’s and Hershey kisses on his table for when they visited the house.  We took him home to pass away peacefully and hope he is reunited in heaven with his wife Liz and all those that have departed before him.

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