WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Sadie “Sally” Mary Coccoma (née Diorio) came to the natural end of a full and blessed life in the company of family on December 18, 2024. She was 96 years old.
Born on September 13, 1928, to Anna (née Damato) and Michael Diorio, Sally grew up the oldest of five children on Staten Island, New York. A firm believer in the value of one’s education, Sally graduated from high school with a dream of becoming a nurse. Undaunted by the dilemma of not having money for tuition, Sally got a job in a typing pool in Manhattan for a summer. She lived at home to save on rent, taking the Staten Island Ferry every day to work. The day she earned enough for tuition, Sally resigned from her typist job and immediately enrolled in Bellevue School of Nursing.
It was in nursing school that Sally met Patrick “Pat” Coccoma, a former Navy corpsman who had served in World War II as a medic attached with the Marines and deployed in the Pacific Arena. Where Sally was quiet and serious, Pat was a jokester and charmer. Although initially skeptical of Pat’s overtures, Sally eventually agreed to a date. They would go on to be married for 62 years. Sally worked as a nurse at Vassar Brothers Hospital while raising her and Pat’s three children in Poughkeepsie, New York. When the last child left home, Sally went back to school to earn her bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine and her master’s degree in human resources from St. Thomas University Biscayne College in Miami, Florida.
After over four decades in nursing, Sally retired from her position as the nursing administrator for South Florida State Hospital to focus on her greatest joy: being Nana to her grandkids. An accomplished seamstress and quilter, Sally made endless articles of matching clothing and blankets for every grandkid. Sally also taught them how to cook her favorite Italian dishes like homemade cavatelli, penne alla vodka, chicken cutlets, and eggplant parmesan. She introduced them to the magnificence of ice cream on waffles for breakfast and instilled in them the importance of keeping a pound cake or banana bread in the freezer, just in case company came. Sally is also credited for teaching her grandkids to gamble with the game of Garbage, fleecing them out of the pennies they collected from Pat’s loose change jar.
Sally led her life with quiet simplicity, steadfast faith, and unwavering love for her family. She is preceded in death by her husband, Patrick Coccoma; sisters Frances Perricone and Anna Simmons; and brother, Vincent Diorio. Sally is survived by her beloved sister, Marie Battista; daughter, Patricia Coccoma (and her husband Richard Pambrun); and sons Michael Coccoma (and his wife, Ellen Coccoma) and Joseph Coccoma (and his wife Judith Coccoma). Sally is also survived by her seven grandchildren—Mark, Nicholas, Caitrin, Angie, Anthony, Peter, and Gianni—five great-grandchildren—Sadie Jane, Florence, Evan, Aubrey, and Roman—as well as several nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews, all of whom she was intensely proud of and loved dearly. Sally will be remembered as a wonderful mother, sister, aunt, and beloved Nana who never allowed anyone to leave her table without just a snitch of something delicious to eat.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice Foundation of America.
