Pauline Verduin

Pauline R. Verduin, age 90, of Wayne, passed away peacefully on Monday, August 19, 2019.

Born in Coplay, PA to Austrian immigrants Frank and Johanna (Fandl) Furst, Pauline was their third of four children. Soon after she was born, Pauline’s father took a job in Garfield, NJ and that is where she spent her formative years and where she attended Garfield High School.

Pauline met the love of her life, Edward Verduin while working together at Smallman’s Wallet Factory – a manufacturing company in South Paterson. Their first date together took place on Ed’s birthday and they went to a live radio broadcast in New York City. That first date went great and so did subsequent ones. Their love for each other grew, eventually leading to marriage on Saturday, November 4, 1950 at St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church in Passaic – the church Pauline grew up attending. After a reception at Golumb’s Hall in Passaic, Pauline and Ed took a road trip to Niagara Falls, NY for their honeymoon. Their first home together was in the oldest house in Garfield. Pauline’s father had purchased it and divided it into four flats – one for each of his children. Soon after, the blessing of a baby girl arrived and, when baby Patricia turned two, this family of three moved to the Richfield Village apartments on Allwood Road in Clifton. They moved again – to Ed’s parent’s two-family home in Paterson before moving one more time in 1965 to a home in the Packanack Lake section of Wayne which they purchased for a mere $23,000. Pauline would call this house her home for the rest of her life.

As a young mother, when Patty started attending elementary school in Paterson, Pauline secured a job at the local dry cleaner. It worked out real well because the dry cleaner was located right between their house and Patty’s school. When the family moved to Wayne in 1965, Pauline took a job as an office clerk for Western Publishing Company right in town. She worked there for several years until Patty graduated from college. Pauline was just 43 years old at that time and all of her family teased her about how young she was for retiring.

A homebody at heart, Pauline loved all things domestic. Her truest passion was making her house a loving, warm and welcoming place for family and friends to gather. Much of the skills Pauline possessed were passed down from her Austrian mother to her and her sisters. From cutting the grass and cultivating beautiful flower gardens to securing the extension ladder while Ed painted the outside of their house, it seemed that Pauline was always striving for the distinction of having the house with the most enviable curb appeal on the block. Indoors, her house was equally lovely. The patterns on the wallpaper, which she hung by herself, always matched perfectly, and the curtains she sewed were the perfect complement to that wallpaper. Pauline was also an excellent cook and baker whose mother taught her the old Austrian recipes. Her fried chicken, roast beef, popovers, and Austrian cookies were family favorites. She loved hosting and entertaining for all the holidays, summer barbeques and birthday celebrations and when her family came, they were always encouraged to bring a big appetite because Pauline had a tendency to prepare food in abundance. Pauline would always be busy the night before her guests would arrive cleaning her already clean house and, one of the greatest compliments you could pay her was to tell her that her floors were so clean you could eat off of them.

In the early days of their marriage, every summer when the plant where her husband Ed worked would shut down, he and Pauline and Patty would seize that time off to tour different parts of the U.S. including Cape Cod, Florida, New Orleans and as far away as Texas. In those days, there was no air conditioning in the car but no one seemed to mind. Retirement brought opportunities for Ed and Pauline to enjoy a more relaxed pace of life. They made it a tradition to go out for lunch once a week and they also enjoyed simply getting in the car to go for a ride. Conversely, retirement brought numerous physical and medical challenges for Ed and, through them all, Pauline was right by his side, lovingly staying with him in the hospital for up to eight hours a day and taking him to all his appointments with doctors. Even the visiting nurses that would come to care for Ed would admit that Pauline did a better job than they did. Devout in her Christian faith, she and her family were parishioners of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Wayne, since they moved to Wayne from Paterson in 1965.

Pauline was a quiet and humble servant. She had nothing but the most sincere and genuine love and devotion for her family and friends and she demonstrated this through her many true acts of hospitality and kindness. She will surely be missed but, her family is thankful that she is finally at peace and they look forward to the day when they will see her again.

Pauline was the beloved wife of Edward Verduin, blessed in marriage for 68 years until Ed’s passing this past March, 2019. She was the loving mother of Patricia Verduin of Wayne, dear sister of Mary LaMantia of Galloway, and dear aunt of several nieces and nephews. She was also predeceased by her brother Frank Fust, Jr. and her sister Johanna Stamler.

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MEMORIAL DONATION INFORMATION

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in Pauline’s name are asked to consider a charity of their own choice.