For Magnificent Life, a Permanent Landmark

If you pass through Loantaka Park by a bridge on Kitchell Road, you might notice a brand new bench. 

It may look like the other benches in the park, but it's particularly special to the Simonetti family. It was dedicated to Trudy Simonetti, the family's matriarch, who died of cancer two years ago. A brass plaque on the bench commemmorates the years of her life.

The Simonettis made a donation to the Morris County Park Commission to dedicate the bench in her name. And on July 23, her husband, three children and six grandchildren gathered together to honor their loved one and dedicate the bench.

July 23 was the two-year anniversary of Simonetti's death. She was 84.

"She was a real strong woman and a work horse, and people knew it when they met her," said her husband, Gino Simonetti.

Her life wasn't always easy. Simonetti was born in Germany and lived through unstable social, economic and political times. Her family had no electricity, no running water and no telephones, and people relied on horse drawn carriages, outhouses, kerosene lamps and dirt roads.

Simonetti had to fight for her freedom and safety as a woman living in Germany at a time when Adolf Hitler was gaining power. She and her brother, Erwin, were left in the care of their aunt and uncle when they were just babies while their parents went to the United States to earn money to send to them in Germany.  

While they were young teenagers in Germany, they experienced the tragedies of the war. But Simonetti had very few stories to tell to her husband, since her childhood memories were not very pleasant. Sometimes, though, she talked about her past.

Many people were forced to leave their homes as a result of the war.  Hoards of people moved together by foot to get out of the country. 

"In the middle of winter ... many times she would see elderly people lay down and die in the snow because they couldn't go on any longer," Gino Simonetti says. "That was just the way it was."

People had nothing to eat, so they ate the grass from the ground and drank contaminated water to survive. Simonetti contracted typhoid fever at one point.

But she survived. And eventually, Erwin and Trudy Simonetti successfully found their way out of Germany and to America where her parents resided.

When she got to the U.S., Simonetti did not speak any English, but she managed to find work wherever she was. She also got a drivers license to get to and from work.

She moved to Staten Island, where her parents were, and eventually owned and operated a very successful restaurant on the water, which wealthy folk frequented.

"Trudy ran the whole restaurant," Gino Simonetti said. "She was the bartender, cook, even ran the marina and whatever other jobs needed to be done to make things run smooth."

Trudy sold the restaurant and eventually met Gino in a movie theatre in New Jersey.   

After they married and spent 12 years in Staten Island, the Simonettis moved to Chatham, where they raised three children: Peter, Lisa, and Johnny. Gino was a cabinetmaker at Mayflower Moving and Storage in Chatham for 35 years.

Her family said it invites you to pause and reflect on her bench, which sits in Loantaka Brook Park.

"Trudy R. Simonetti, 1924-2008," it reads. "Forever Loved By Family and Friends."