Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Calls outside of office hours? No worries! Our team will respond within 10–15 minutes.
May 25, 2017
Services
Friends and family are invited to attend a regular worship service at Preakness Valley United Reformed Church, 480 Valley Road in Wayne to learn more about the source of her love, faith and strength for all eternity. If unable to attend, please visit your own House of Worship and remember her while worshipping there. Please read her favorite verse of scripture Philippians 4:13.
SWEERUS, Sandra E., 68 of Wayne, was taken to Glory to be with the Lord on May 25, 2017. Among her friends and family she was typically known as Sandy.
Sandy was born August 15, 1948 to Ann (Raywood) and Conrad Sweerus, Jr. and was brought home from the General Hospital in Paterson to the couple's home in Wayne. This was the same home that she later purchased from them and where she went to sleep on her last evening in this life to awaken in her new, heavenly home. The eldest of the couple's six children she grew up in a still rural, but growing, Wayne. The fields, cow pastures, woods, brooks and ponds that surrounded the home made for of a place of adventure and exploration for her and the homes in the developments that replaced farms brought more and more special childhood friends into her life.
Throughout her childhood family vacations to her grandmother's summer place at Lake Hopatcong and weekend picnics in which her family was joined by her aunts, uncles and cousin were loved. Being the eldest child she would help her mom more and more as she grew older and each successive brother and sister was born. This is where she was taught and honed her loving, compassionate, mothering ways.
She went through Kindergarten through 12th grade in the Wayne Schools starting out kindergarten in the little white Preakness School on Hamburg Turnpike, then attending Lafayette Elementary School, Anthony Wayne Junior High, and eventually graduating with the class of 1966 of Wayne High School. She attended William Paterson College in Wayne after high school with plans to become an art teacher. Unsure if that was the life in store for her she delayed applying until the last minute when, urged by her guidance counselor, he drove her up to the school on the last day of admission to submit her application. Once at the school she fit in well creating artwork, working part time jobs at Grant's and Stern's department stores and enjoying lots of fun times with friends. She recounted one time when a group of friends were driving through campus in the friend's Volkswagen Beetle. They were having so much fun the driver became distracted and ran into the car in front of them. Only the car, instead of crashing, rode up the back bumper of the car they hit causing the Beetle to tip backwards!
Her uncertainty of whether she would eventually teach art were justified when she, in 1969, gave birth to a son, Christopher, a role in which her mothering skills would remain active right to her last day. An only child, her own brothers and sisters she helped her mother care for became like brothers and sisters to her own son.
She worked for Prospect Park National Bank at various locations in a variety of positions, once even thwarting a bomb threat phoned into the bank while she worked in the safe deposit area. Eventually, she would take a position in a new department at the bank, working with credit cards. Prospect Park National Bank would eventually close its doors. Many years later a friend, planning to buy the shuttered bank building on North 8th Street in Prospect Park asked her to walk through the building. She walked through the building with the friend and the realtor and could explain the intricacies of oddities in the building's architecture that no one could see the rationale for having not worked there. She commented at the time that it was like walking into a time capsule where all the furniture and fixtures sat just as they did when the building was closed and that not a speck of dust was on anything despite over 20 years having lay dormant. After Prospect Park she went to work with People's Bank as an officer in consumer lending and bank cards. Leaving there she took on a role at Valley National Bank in consumer lending, soon taking a lead role in their bank card operations eventually leading the department and rising to a Vice President title. It was from Valley National Bank that she would retire in 2016. Within weeks of announcing her plans to retire she was, unexpectedly, diagnosed with cancer.
She fought the disease with confidence impressing many medical professionals, friends and family with her ability to rebound quickly from hospital stays, operations and chemotherapy. She never complained, she just forged ahead determined to, with God's strength, overcome. With each month she breathed a sigh of relief at the success of the chemotherapy, praising God for giving her this extra time of healthy, relaxing, living. The cancer would return one last time just weeks before her passing.
In her recreation time she especially loved gardening, bird watching, taking long walks and spent much time continuing to use her artistic talents in a variety of crafts, most especially crocheting and knitting. She was also great at Sudoku, crossword and other puzzles. In recent years she enjoyed spending time on weekends in the Poconos along the Delaware River. She was a great and loving mom and looked forward to being a great and loving angel.
Sandy is survived by her son, Christopher Sweerus of New Jersey; her sisters Joy Curcio (Gary) of North Carolina; Lynn Jackson of Pennsylvania; Beth Sullivan (Robert) of Virginia; brother Paul Sweerus of Pennsylvania, and; sister-in-law Gay Sweerus of North Carolina. She is also survived by three aunts, Ruth Drelich of Iowa; Claire Kutzleb (Edward), and Elaine Bergin (Daniel) of New Jersey. and many nephews, nieces and cousins. She was predeceased by her mother Ann (Raywood) Sweerus (2000); her father Conrad Sweerus, Jr. (2015); brother Richard Sweerus (2014); brother-in-law Robert Jackson (2015); grandmother Nellie (Martin) Sweerus (1968); grandfather Conrad Sweerus, Sr. (1975); grandfather Hubert Raywood (1960); and grandmother Anna Raywood (1976).
On May 31, 2017, the family will hold a graveside service with family and friends beginning with a processional at 10:30 am from Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne for an 11:00 am service at Laurel Grove Cemetery, Totowa, NJ, officiated by Reverend David Klompien of Preakness Valley United Reformed Church of Wayne where she was baptized as a baby (when it was Preakness Christian Reformed Church), made profession of faith and where she enjoyed Sunday worship most Sundays.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made in Sandra's name to Preakness Valley United Reformed Church, 480 Valley Rd, Wayne, New Jersey.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends and family are invited to attend a regular worship service at Preakness Valley United Reformed Church, 480 Valley Road in Wayne to learn more about the source of her love, faith and strength for all eternity. If unable to attend, please visit your own House of Worship and remember her while worshipping there. Please read her favorite verse of scripture Philippians 4:13.
May 25, 2017
Services
Friends and family are invited to attend a regular worship service at Preakness Valley United Reformed Church, 480 Valley Road in Wayne to learn more about the source of her love, faith and strength for all eternity. If unable to attend, please visit your own House of Worship and remember her while worshipping there. Please read her favorite verse of scripture Philippians 4:13.
SWEERUS, Sandra E., 68 of Wayne, was taken to Glory to be with the Lord on May 25, 2017. Among her friends and family she was typically known as Sandy.
Sandy was born August 15, 1948 to Ann (Raywood) and Conrad Sweerus, Jr. and was brought home from the General Hospital in Paterson to the couple's home in Wayne. This was the same home that she later purchased from them and where she went to sleep on her last evening in this life to awaken in her new, heavenly home. The eldest of the couple's six children she grew up in a still rural, but growing, Wayne. The fields, cow pastures, woods, brooks and ponds that surrounded the home made for of a place of adventure and exploration for her and the homes in the developments that replaced farms brought more and more special childhood friends into her life.
Throughout her childhood family vacations to her grandmother's summer place at Lake Hopatcong and weekend picnics in which her family was joined by her aunts, uncles and cousin were loved. Being the eldest child she would help her mom more and more as she grew older and each successive brother and sister was born. This is where she was taught and honed her loving, compassionate, mothering ways.
She went through Kindergarten through 12th grade in the Wayne Schools starting out kindergarten in the little white Preakness School on Hamburg Turnpike, then attending Lafayette Elementary School, Anthony Wayne Junior High, and eventually graduating with the class of 1966 of Wayne High School. She attended William Paterson College in Wayne after high school with plans to become an art teacher. Unsure if that was the life in store for her she delayed applying until the last minute when, urged by her guidance counselor, he drove her up to the school on the last day of admission to submit her application. Once at the school she fit in well creating artwork, working part time jobs at Grant's and Stern's department stores and enjoying lots of fun times with friends. She recounted one time when a group of friends were driving through campus in the friend's Volkswagen Beetle. They were having so much fun the driver became distracted and ran into the car in front of them. Only the car, instead of crashing, rode up the back bumper of the car they hit causing the Beetle to tip backwards!
Her uncertainty of whether she would eventually teach art were justified when she, in 1969, gave birth to a son, Christopher, a role in which her mothering skills would remain active right to her last day. An only child, her own brothers and sisters she helped her mother care for became like brothers and sisters to her own son.
She worked for Prospect Park National Bank at various locations in a variety of positions, once even thwarting a bomb threat phoned into the bank while she worked in the safe deposit area. Eventually, she would take a position in a new department at the bank, working with credit cards. Prospect Park National Bank would eventually close its doors. Many years later a friend, planning to buy the shuttered bank building on North 8th Street in Prospect Park asked her to walk through the building. She walked through the building with the friend and the realtor and could explain the intricacies of oddities in the building's architecture that no one could see the rationale for having not worked there. She commented at the time that it was like walking into a time capsule where all the furniture and fixtures sat just as they did when the building was closed and that not a speck of dust was on anything despite over 20 years having lay dormant. After Prospect Park she went to work with People's Bank as an officer in consumer lending and bank cards. Leaving there she took on a role at Valley National Bank in consumer lending, soon taking a lead role in their bank card operations eventually leading the department and rising to a Vice President title. It was from Valley National Bank that she would retire in 2016. Within weeks of announcing her plans to retire she was, unexpectedly, diagnosed with cancer.
She fought the disease with confidence impressing many medical professionals, friends and family with her ability to rebound quickly from hospital stays, operations and chemotherapy. She never complained, she just forged ahead determined to, with God's strength, overcome. With each month she breathed a sigh of relief at the success of the chemotherapy, praising God for giving her this extra time of healthy, relaxing, living. The cancer would return one last time just weeks before her passing.
In her recreation time she especially loved gardening, bird watching, taking long walks and spent much time continuing to use her artistic talents in a variety of crafts, most especially crocheting and knitting. She was also great at Sudoku, crossword and other puzzles. In recent years she enjoyed spending time on weekends in the Poconos along the Delaware River. She was a great and loving mom and looked forward to being a great and loving angel.
Sandy is survived by her son, Christopher Sweerus of New Jersey; her sisters Joy Curcio (Gary) of North Carolina; Lynn Jackson of Pennsylvania; Beth Sullivan (Robert) of Virginia; brother Paul Sweerus of Pennsylvania, and; sister-in-law Gay Sweerus of North Carolina. She is also survived by three aunts, Ruth Drelich of Iowa; Claire Kutzleb (Edward), and Elaine Bergin (Daniel) of New Jersey. and many nephews, nieces and cousins. She was predeceased by her mother Ann (Raywood) Sweerus (2000); her father Conrad Sweerus, Jr. (2015); brother Richard Sweerus (2014); brother-in-law Robert Jackson (2015); grandmother Nellie (Martin) Sweerus (1968); grandfather Conrad Sweerus, Sr. (1975); grandfather Hubert Raywood (1960); and grandmother Anna Raywood (1976).
On May 31, 2017, the family will hold a graveside service with family and friends beginning with a processional at 10:30 am from Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne for an 11:00 am service at Laurel Grove Cemetery, Totowa, NJ, officiated by Reverend David Klompien of Preakness Valley United Reformed Church of Wayne where she was baptized as a baby (when it was Preakness Christian Reformed Church), made profession of faith and where she enjoyed Sunday worship most Sundays.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made in Sandra's name to Preakness Valley United Reformed Church, 480 Valley Rd, Wayne, New Jersey.
Guestbook
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.