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January 28, 2012
Services
Friends may visit with the family on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 from 2-4 and 7-9 PM at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 10 AM on Wednesday, February 1 at the funeral home. Interment will be in the East Ridgelawn Cemetery, Clifton.
Patricia F. Opalka (nee Fertal) age 74 of Wayne died peacefully at the Christian Health Care Center, Wyckoff. She had lived in Clifton before moving to Wayne in 1960.
Pat was a secretary for the Union Camp Corporation in Wayne for five years, Mosler Corp., and American Cyanamid for many years, before she retired in the mid 90’s.
She was born in Homer City, PA and grew up there in the coal mining region of Pennsylvania. As a teenager, she was a contestant in the Miss Indiana County Beauty Pageant. It was a very rural lifestyle there and employment and opportunity for a young lady was not exactly easy to come by. She moved to Lodi, living with her cousins, in the hope of finding work. She found more than that when she met Joe Opalka. Joe was well acquainted with her cousins and met her shortly after she moved to town. He took her to see “Oklahoma” in Passaic on their first date, followed by dinner at Rutt’s Hut. Their romance blossomed and they were married at the Polish National Church in Passaic in 1958. They honeymooned at Cape Cod and have enjoyed more than fifty three years together.
Pat and Joe traveled all over the United States with their travel trailer. They’ve visited many of the national parks and have visited just about every state. They’ve been on sixteen cruises together, also to Europe and Russia. As adults, they took ballroom dancing lessons and loved to go dancing. They would frequently go to Oakland and Upper Montclair to dance, but had a habit of getting on stage just about anywhere to dance. They danced when they went on cruises, often with the spot light on themselves, and also while in Paris, they went onstage to dance at the Moulin Rouge. They had a lot of fun together and made lots of wonderful memories.
When she wasn’t traveling, she enjoyed quilting and sewing. She even used to make her children’s clothes when they were young.
She was the loving wife of more than fifty-three years to Joseph Opalka; devoted mother of Joseph J. Opalka, Jr. and his wife Christine of Wayne, Margaret Hochkeppel and her husband William of Kinnelon, and Cheryll Remus and her husband John of Jefferson; cherished grandmother of William and Patricia Hochkeppel and Andre Remus; loved sister of Marion Martin of Homer City, PA.
Memorial donations to the Christian Health Care Center Foundation, 301 Sicomac Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481 would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 from 2-4 and 7-9 PM at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 10 AM on Wednesday, February 1 at the funeral home. Interment will be in the East Ridgelawn Cemetery, Clifton.
January 28, 2012
Services
Friends may visit with the family on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 from 2-4 and 7-9 PM at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Rd., Wayne.
Funeral services will be held 10 AM on Wednesday, February 1 at the funeral home. Interment will be in the East Ridgelawn Cemetery, Clifton.
Patricia F. Opalka (nee Fertal) age 74 of Wayne died peacefully at the Christian Health Care Center, Wyckoff. She had lived in Clifton before moving to Wayne in 1960.
Pat was a secretary for the Union Camp Corporation in Wayne for five years, Mosler Corp., and American Cyanamid for many years, before she retired in the mid 90’s.
She was born in Homer City, PA and grew up there in the coal mining region of Pennsylvania. As a teenager, she was a contestant in the Miss Indiana County Beauty Pageant. It was a very rural lifestyle there and employment and opportunity for a young lady was not exactly easy to come by. She moved to Lodi, living with her cousins, in the hope of finding work. She found more than that when she met Joe Opalka. Joe was well acquainted with her cousins and met her shortly after she moved to town. He took her to see “Oklahoma” in Passaic on their first date, followed by dinner at Rutt’s Hut. Their romance blossomed and they were married at the Polish National Church in Passaic in 1958. They honeymooned at Cape Cod and have enjoyed more than fifty three years together.
Pat and Joe traveled all over the United States with their travel trailer. They’ve visited many of the national parks and have visited just about every state. They’ve been on sixteen cruises together, also to Europe and Russia. As adults, they took ballroom dancing lessons and loved to go dancing. They would frequently go to Oakland and Upper Montclair to dance, but had a habit of getting on stage just about anywhere to dance. They danced when they went on cruises, often with the spot light on themselves, and also while in Paris, they went onstage to dance at the Moulin Rouge. They had a lot of fun together and made lots of wonderful memories.
When she wasn’t traveling, she enjoyed quilting and sewing. She even used to make her children’s clothes when they were young.
She was the loving wife of more than fifty-three years to Joseph Opalka; devoted mother of Joseph J. Opalka, Jr. and his wife Christine of Wayne, Margaret Hochkeppel and her husband William of Kinnelon, and Cheryll Remus and her husband John of Jefferson; cherished grandmother of William and Patricia Hochkeppel and Andre Remus; loved sister of Marion Martin of Homer City, PA.
Memorial donations to the Christian Health Care Center Foundation, 301 Sicomac Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481 would be greatly appreciated.
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