Sarah C. Tommaney

Age 86, of Quechee, VT/Boynton Beach, FL, passed away on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018 at the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care after a 3 - week battle with sepsis and 2 subsequent strokes. With their love and support, her husband and 5 children were gathered around her bedside.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:30 AM on Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 at St. William's Catholic Church in Tewksbury, MA (1351 Main Street). Celebrant Rev. John Murray, S.J. will officiate along with Concelebrant Rev. Quilin Bouzi, OMI, and Deacon Peter Brooks. Sarah will be laid to rest in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, NY at a later date. All friends and family are invited to gather for a luncheon in the lower church function room after Mass.

Sarah was born on March 15, 1932 in Harristown, Ballymote, County Sligo, Ireland, the eldest daughter of Patrick "Bertie" and Kathleen (Cawley) Scully. She emigrated to the United States in 1949 at the age of 17, arriving in NYC after traveling 6 days on the ocean liner, Britannic.

She worked for 1 ½ years at the home of a distant relative in Morristown, NJ, then briefly took a job as a switchboard telephone operator for New Jersey Bell, and eventually moved to the Bronx, NY where she was employed by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. She loved to laugh, dance, & socialize with friends. While in NYC, Sarah enjoyed going to shows at Rockefeller Center, marching in the Saint Patrick's Day Parade, weekend getaways to the beach or to East Durham, NY, attending Irish football & hurling games, and gathering with fellow members of the Pioneer Association in the Bronx. She spent most weekends going to Irish dances at City Center and Gaelic Park, where she met her husband, John Tommaney.

The happy couple married on June 6, 1964 and lived in the Bronx for a couple of years, before eventually moving to NJ, first in Emerson and then in Woodcliff Lake, as the family continued to grow. Sarah worked tirelessly at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton Hotel, Mercedes Benz, Airco Gas, & SONY Corporation in various accounting and bookkeeping positions over the years while raising their five children. She instilled in them the importance of religion, family, tradition, hard work, community, & hospitality. She loved movies, Broadway shows, Irish music & dance, shopping, holiday decorating, and family vacations. Sarah and John moved to Quechee, VT to live with one of their daughters when they sold the family home in 1999. Several years later, they purchased a home in Boynton Beach, FL to live during the winter months. There Sarah met up with many of the friends she had known from NJ and many of the Irish she had known long ago in NYC.

Sarah is survived by her loving husband, John; her daughters, Marie (John) Sears, Eileen (Scott) Brooks, & Bernadette (Daryl) Loether; her sons, John (Lisa) Tommaney and Brendan (Kim) Tommaney; her grandchildren, Meghan, Bridget, Connor, Sarah, Sean, Aidan, Brendan, Jack, & Logan; her siblings, Ann Lawlor of Chiswick, England, Philomena (Joseph) Hogan of Arlington, MA, Bernadette (Henry) Spring of Dublin, Ireland, & Thady Scully of Sligo, Ireland; as well as many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews both domestic and abroad.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Patrick and Kathleen; and her brother-in-law John Lawlor.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Sarah's name can be mailed to:

1) Edmundite Missions (P.O Box 2114, Selma, AL 36702-2114) www.EdmunditeMissions.org

2) Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care (One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756) www.dartmouthhitchcock.org/palliative_care/donate.html

The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude to the staff at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and The Jack Byrne Center for the extraordinary care and support provided to both Sarah and her family.