Winifred Convertini

Winifred “Winnie the Pooh” Convertini, age 81, of Lakewood, passed at home on Sunday, May 5, 2019.

She was born to Cassie and Olive Rodrick and raised in the family home on Beach Terrace in the Bronx, New York. She graduated from Walton high school in the Bronx with the Class of 1955.

Through her working years Winnie worked in an administrative capacity in many and varied industries including her first job at Lee’s Luggage in Manhattan. She also worked as the manager for the Englewood Country Club, at a textile company in Clifton and a corrugated box company in Palisades Park.

She found love three different times in her life.  She married Stephen Savva, Ed Ulinsky, and finally met the true love of her life Joe Convertini. When she met Joe she stopped working and traveled with him extensively for about fifteen years.  Along with all their traveling they would spend about three weeks each year in Aruba.  It was their special place. She “snow birded” in between Florida and New Jersey for over 20 years. She has lived for many years in the Leisure Village development in Lakewood where she had many friends whom she adored.

Winnie was dedicated to her Christian faith and loved to go to church.  She never passed a church she didn’t like and felt at home in just about any house of worship. Not only would she feel at home there but she would get involved and volunteer as well.

Winnie was like a fish and loved swimming, snorkeling and diving. At the beach she would swim out beyond the breakers and loved to swim the backstroke. She was always taking children under her wing to teach them how to swim – whether she knew them or not. She has curio shelves full of shells, starfish, sand dollars, coral, and all other manner of sea related trinkets. Her granddaughter Karlee took up her love of travel and the ocean, and always loved hearing about her trips. She also collected elephants but always wanted them with the trunks raised as those were the good luck elephants.

Winnie was always the life of the party, dancing like a nut even when she needed a walker. Her son started his own events company in 1983,  and she always loved hearing about his life in the party business. When she met you she would introduce herself as “Winnie the Pooh” and tell you her son even had a cat named Tigger. She had a huge personality, was always joining or getting involved, and was the kind of person who loved to be there and care for others.  She would strike up a conversation with anyone in any situation and soon they would be conversing back.  She just loved others and they loved her back. Just before she had her recent knee replacement she was visiting others, bringing them to doctors’ visits, and delivering food for the local food pantry. She was kind beyond words and deeds and put other needs ahead of her own, even those she had potentially met the day before. She was also frugal, loved her daily $1.00 cup of coffee at McDonalds, and her purse was always stuffed with coupons.

Winnie was the loving wife of the late Joseph Convertini (1993); devoted mother of Nicholas Savva and his wife Andrea of Wayne; cherished grandmother of Karlee and Haley Savva and Ryan and Alyssa Convertini and their mom Joy Convertini; she was also the dear sister of the late Patty Rodrick, Millie Derk of Long Beach, Long Island, NY, and Barbara D’Angelo of Tampa, FL. She was also loved by nieces, nephews, cousins, and many friends.

She always struggled with chronic bi-polar disorder that she did her best to hide. Her highs were awesome but her lows were always difficult for her and something she tried to shield from others. Her granddaughter Haley, is pursuing her masters at NYU in social work to help others the way her grandma taught her. Ironically her passing falls during Mental Health Awareness Month. In lieu of flowers memorial donations should be directed to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Health).

With a life devoted to her faith we have no doubt she got an express ticket to heaven, and is finally reunited with the love of her life Joe, her family, and friends and playing with her “godson” Maxi. She would prefer everyone to celebrate her life during this time, and reflect on all the happy memories. She lived by mantra’s and wrote them in every card, “we are family, keep smiling, take the best and leave the rest!”