Barbara Sova

Barbara Ann Sova (nee DiMaria), age 76 of West Milford, died on Friday, January 28, 2022, with her family gathered at her bedside.

Barbara grew up in Wayne and graduated from Wayne High School in 1963. During her high school years, she was a cheerleader and participated in the French Club. She went on to attend Elmira College, where she graduated in 1967. It was right around this time that she met Robert Sova through a mutual friend. Bob was selling stuffed animals and Barbara had bought one from him. He took her phone number and called her soon thereafter. They enjoyed a date to Palisades Park and Barbara was smitten. From that day forward, she only had eyes for Bob. They married on January 4, 1969 at Annunciation RC Church in Wayne, but there was no time for a honeymoon due to military service. Bob was serving in the Army and they spent the better part of the next two years living in Buffalo, NY. Upon returning to New Jersey, they first lived in Cedar Grove for four years before opening Sova Animal Hospital in 1975. They then settled in West Milford in 1976 where they lived for nearly fifty years. Throughout their fifty-three years of their marriage, they enjoyed snow skiing, water skiing, scuba diving, and playing tennis. Barbara always had a fondness for the beach, and she loved spending time at their condominium in Ortley Beach. She especially loved to travel and had visited Turkey, Croatia, France, Sicily, Costa Rica, the Cayman Islands, as well as too many US destinations to list.  She and Bob enjoyed their fifty-three years together and he will miss her dearly.

Barbara was a wonderful homemaker and mom. Her loving personality, balanced life, and compassion was the glue that kept her family united. Her magnetic personality allowed her to develop a tremendous number of incredible and loving friends that her and Bob would make memories with. Early on, she was very involved within the High Crest Lake community where they lived, and she was always driving her kids somewhere! She referred to her grandchildren as her “babies” and she would do anything for them. They were her life. “Mimi,” as they affectionately called her, was her favorite title, and Barbara enjoyed doing everything she could with them. They will miss her dearly.

Barbara loved kids and she especially loved teaching. She had been a teacher briefly when she was first married, and left teaching to raise her children. When she began teaching again, she was a part-time ESL teacher in Kinnelon before joining the Montville school district full-time, primarily teaching ESL, and later teaching French. She built genuine connections with many of her students, and she maintained relationships with many of them even after the kids had graduated from high school. She took a real interest in seeing kids grow and develop, and her students recognized this. She became a true friend to many of them, and the world is a better place because of her commitment to improving the lives of others. She retired from teaching at Montville High School in 2011 and worked as the office manager at her husband’s veterinary hospital in Butler, Sova Animal Hospital. Her kindness was felt here, as well, by all who came in.

Barbara is survived by her devoted husband, Dr. Robert J. Sova of West Milford, their two children; Laurie Dittmeier and her husband Paul of Kinnelon, and Robert Sova, Jr. of West Milford, her mother; Virginia DiMaria of Wayne, two grandchildren; Kylee and Ryan Dittmeier of Kinnelon, her siblings; Charles “Skip” DiMaria and his wife Geraldine of Barnegat, Linda Finke and her husband Frank of Wood-Ridge, and Diane DiMaria of Voorhees, as well as many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her grandson, Casey Dittmeier of Kinnelon and by her father; Charles DiMaria.

In lieu of flowers, donations would be appreciated to the American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org