Agnes Bauzon Brady, age 55, of Wayne, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, December 6, 2017.

“Aggie” as she was affectionately known, was born in the city of Manila in the Philippines. When she was ten years old, her father Benjamin, who was a Merchant Marine, secured a job in the United States with the U.S. Postal Service and consequently, he moved his whole family to this new country. Of course, this had a profound effect upon ten-year-old Aggie and all of her family. They settled into their new home at 430 Lafayette Ave. in Passaic and Aggie eventually embraced life in America.

After graduating from Passaic High School with the Class of 1980, she immediately enrolled in Felician College, then in Lodi, where in 1982, she earned her associates degree and, after passing the board exam, became a registered nurse. From there, Aggie began a very special career in which, for the next 33 years, if you were in the emergency room or hospital, you would wish that you could be under the care of this loving compassionate woman. She started her career in the emergency room at Passaic General Hospital and tenderly served patients there for the next seventeen years. Then, after a short stint at Wayne General and Barnett Hospital, she settled in again, this time at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, NJ in the cardiac rehabilitation unit where she worked from 2003 to the present. She enjoyed the love and respect of her colleagues and patients alike. When she was growing up, Aggie wanted to be an engineer but her father convinced her to go into nursing instead. This turned out to be a very fortunate thing for her patients! Many of those patients loved her so much, they would bring her gifts – mostly bells and shot glasses because that’s what Aggie told them she liked, but they were actually items her husband Frank collected.

If you ask Aggie’s husband Frank when it was that he and Aggie first met, he’d tell you it was one night in September of 1982 at Passaic General Hospital in the emergency room when he, as a Passaic County Sheriff’s Officer, brought a prisoner to the E.R. Aggie was working that night but she didn’t attend to that prisoner and she didn’t even notice Frank, but he definitely noticed her. As coincidence would have it, Frank ran into her again, this time at Bentley’s Night Club in Wayne. As Frank described the encounter, he saw Aggie from across the room, wearing a white mini-skirt and dancing on the dance floor. He couldn’t resist approaching her to ask if she remembered him from the other night in the E.R. She replied that she didn’t, explaining that it was a busy night. Undaunted, Frank asked Aggie if she’d like to dance with him. Aggie replied that she was with someone else but Frank still didn’t give up. He asked Aggie if he could meet her later that night at the Golden Star Diner on Route 46 along with his buddy George. Aggie finally agreed and there, she and Frank began to get to know each other. Their next encounter was at a party at her friend’s house in Passaic, but Aggie told Frank to just meet her at the party because her father was real strict. Then, on New Year’s Eve, they went together to a party but, once again, because her father was so strict, Aggie told her father that she was going to the party with some girlfriends only to get picked up around the corner from her home by Frank. That’s when their love for each other really began to blossom. Frank and Aggie dated for the next two years – all this time, still unbeknownst to Aggie’s parents. A special night came for them on Thursday, October 18, 1984. They went out for a movie, then dinner in a restaurant on Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City. It was there that Frank proposed marriage to his dear Aggie. That same evening, they went and bought a ring. It was high time that Frank meet Aggies parents to ask for her hand in marriage. Aggie’s father was concerned, explaining as carefully as he could that Filipino girls marry Filipino men, not Irishmen. Frank gave his best and most sincere pitch, promising Aggie’s father that he would love, honor, and respect Aggie and do his very best to be a loving and supportive husband for her. All seemed ok after that but, a few months later, in the summer of 1985, when Frank excitedly announced to Aggie that he had booked a few days down in Wildwood Crest for the two of them, she disappointedly had to turn Frank down, explaining that her father was sending her to the Philippines to spend time with her rich uncle. She went to the Philippines where she was given the royal treatment and introduced to handsome, well-off Filipino men. But Aggie wanted Frank – her Irish rooted American boyfriend and fiancé. Love prevailed and Aggie and Frank exchanged their wedding promises before God and family and friends on Sunday, September 21, 1986 at St. Brendan’s Church in Clifton. After a celebratory reception at The Fiesta in Wood-Ridge, the newlyweds honeymooned in Jamaica, then settled into their first apartment together as husband and wife in the Richfield Village section of Clifton. After a couple years there, in May, 1989, they moved into their first home together at 10 Kievit Road in Wayne. They remained there until May of 1996 when they moved one more time into another home in Wayne where Aggie would end up spending the rest of her life.

Blessed by God with two sons – Frank, Jr. and Christopher, her boys became the most important part of Aggie’s life. She delighted in them, make them her utmost top priority, and consequently she always tailored her schedule around their activities and pursuits. From a very young age, both Frank, Jr. and Christopher displayed an evident gift for playing sports, especially football and basketball. When coached in the Wayne Boys and Girls Club football league by her husband Frank, Aggie was always there to support her sons and keep her husband calm. When they played basketball for the Wayne PAL Aggie and Frank traveled three times to Las Vegas and twice to Florida’s Disney Wide World of Sports to see the boys compete. As the boys grew older, Frank, Jr. attended DePaul High School then Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut while Chris attended Don Bosco Prep and later Yale University. Both boys played football in high school and college and, as a result, traveled extensively to compete. They could be sure that Aggie was at every game to root them on to victory.

Aggie always did her best to make life special for her family. Spending her early childhood in the Philippines, she quickly found great enjoyment from being near the water. Ironically, she couldn’t swim but, living in New Jersey, she loved going down to the Jersey shore too. Her boys will always have fond memories of, many summers, renting a little cottage house on Amberjack Road in Ocean Beach. Despite the house being small, Aggie always had that house full of extended family and friends. She had a tremendous gift for hospitality and an even greater gift for cooking! In the words of her boys, “Mom was an unbelievable chef!” She mixed a little bit of her Filipino roots with some American traditions, sprinkled in a little bit of Italian flavor and Spanish spice to make some of the most delicious recipes on earth. Her beef, veal and pork meatballs were famous and there was always way more food than anyone could possibly eat. Her son’s friends were regulars for dinner at the Brady house and every Sunday she made a traditional meal. She especially loved cooking for the holidays and she would always buy those disposable containers for leftovers so that the army of friends she invited over, could all take the extras home with them.

Aggie never shied away from putting in whatever effort it took to get a job done. Like a robot, she never seemed to tire. Up at 4:00 AM every morning, she’d get herself ready for work, make breakfast for her family, work all day caring for others, come home, make dinner, and clean up all the dishes afterward. In between, there would be laundry to wash, dry, fold and put away, and trips to Passaic to care for her much-loved mother. She was a genuinely caring, selfless, compassionate, hardworking individual whose life was shaped by a love for God and a love for others.

Aggie was the beloved wife of Frank Brady; loving and caring mother of Frank Brady, Jr. and Christopher Brady of Wayne; cherished daughter of Imelda Bauzon of Passaic; dear oldest sister of Valerie and husband John Kapsis of Albrightsville, PA, Lea Bauzon Rodriguez of Wantage, NJ, and Benjamin Bauzon of Passaic; dear sister-in-law of Joseph Brady, Jr and wife Virginia Brady of Wayne; and much-loved aunt of nephews and nieces: Joseph Brady, Jr., Anthony Brady, Michael Rodriguez, and Mia Rodriguez. Agnes was predeceased by her dear father Benjamin Bauzon in 2003.

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in Agnes’s name are asked to consider the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 417005, Boston, MA 02241-7005.