Florica Carlea

Florica Maria Pascu Carlea passed away Sunday, January 21, 2024 in Queens, New York.  She was 81.

Florica was born in the small village of Gradinari, Romania, to parents who were farmers. She got an education, moved to the regional city of Timisoara and began her career as a clerk for the Transportation Department. There she met her future husband, Vasile, an engineer. They endured years of brutal Communist dictatorship but persevered, welcoming two children, making their home and making memories.

In the early 1980s, with two suitcases and two little kids, they left Romania for the promise of a better life in America and settled in New York City. In her new country she went to college and became a physical therapist while raising two daughters. She was fiercely loyal, and when her husband got sick was by his side every day.  

In her later years she gardened, cooked, read books on physics and the elegance of the universe. She started learning Italian and loved animals, caring after stray cats and wounded birds.

She leaves behind her two daughters, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren -- her “sun and the stars,” as she would say. She will be terribly missed.     

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