My Mom, Esther Pepe(Birthname- Esterina Cantone) passed away this week on Sept. 11, 2019. She had been in the hospital and just came home Sept 10. I know in my heart that God waited till she was home before he took her to his side.
Mom was 95 yrs. old and never drove. But she knew every single bus schedule in Westchester County and took bus trips all over the place.! She also was the most avid walker; everyone in Harrison knew her as she would walk through town almost every day. At night she would tell me about the people she met, I remember one time she had come home from White Plains and telling me all about the bus driver, his family etc
I said, “Ma, you were only on the bus 20 minutes”.. How did find out so much!!!
She was unbelievable!
Mom was such a outgoing person. She loved talking to people and made many friends
along the way. Mom was very active and joined the Harrison Seniors, the Red Hats, went to dances and took many trips over the years. She was always going!!!
Like myself, Mom was an avid Yankee fan and I have so many memories of us watching a game and Mom yelling at the umpire, “Are you kidding me? That was a ball, not a strike!
Oh and did Mom enjoy her glass of wine at dinner Every night and if she ran out, she would walk up to the local wine store and buy it!
Mom was a fiercely independent woman and quite often, was just like her sign – Taurus the Bull. She would yes you to death and then just do what she wanted to anyway.!

Besides being a Mom, she was a grandmother and great grandmother
But she was certainly not your typical grandmother! she wore jeans and sneakers and I remember when her grandson Bill introduced her at a high school event, there was my Mom in her designer jeans…The kids said, “That’s your Grandmother”? They couldn’t believe it!
She was a sharp dresser and had great taste in clothes! And she was a great shopper too/ She would go to Lord and Taylor
and carefully look through all the clothes and wouldn’t you know it! She would always find the one blouse that was $100. marked down to $19.00 I don’t how she did it, but she did.!!!
She loved to listen to music and loved to dance!! Her and my Dad would dance all night when they went out and they were great!
Mom was also very athletic. Would play handball and ping pong.late into her 80’s In factirst date with my Dad, he went rto pick her up and was all dressed up in a suit and tie. When he asked her what she wanted to do (he expected her to say, “go to a nightclub”. But she said she wanted to play handball! And that’s what they did!

My Mom was also a nutrition freak. Every morning, my brother Bill, who is in Heaven, would call her every morning and they would spend half their time talking about
What was good to eat, what news came out about a bad food, etc. They were quite a pair and were experts on the subject.
It drove me crazy though because every time we went food shopping, it took so long, because Mom would read the label on everything she was going to buy! And if she saw an ingredient she didn’t know, she would ask my brother about it! To her, my brother was the GURU of healthy eating!

Both myself and my family will have so many precious memories in our hearts of this proud, caring and outgoing woman.

Mom is survived by myself – her daughter Penelope (Penny ) Pepe, her son Joseph Pepe, and his children, Samanatha and Jaimie; her grandchildren Brett Pepe, William Pepe and his wife Alison and Julianne Pepe Crow and her husband Andy, her great grandchildren Parker and Grayson Crow and Cameron, Dahlia and Landon Pepe. And her daughter –in-law Mary Pepe (her son Bill’s wife)

KINDLY MAKE MEMORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO ALZ.ORG (ALZHEIMERS ASSOCIATION/ HELP FIGHT ALZHEIMERS)