Kathleen Marie DiPietro

February 3, 1954 - November 11, 2019

With broken hearts, we announce that our mom, Kathleen Marie DiPietro (nee Monitzer) has reunited with her soulmate, Louis DiPietro, in heaven. For two years she faced every one of her countless and unfathomable challenges of pancreatic cancer in true Kathleen form...with vivacious fire, inconceivable courage, and heroic strength. As her last months approached, her beautiful spirit of good humor, generosity, grace and love prevailed and cancer lost its strength. Our mom won, in her own way, and she journeyed home on November 11, 2019, taking with her a full heart and a piece of everyone’s heart she met along the way. Welcoming her to heaven are her extraordinary parents, Karl and Rose Marie Monitzer. They must be so proud of how hard Kathleen worked to honor their legacy of family. Her dad was the light of her life and she was so proud to share their story with everyone she met. While living in a tiny home in Blackwood, Karl and Rose brought home their fourth child and first baby girl, Kathleen on February 3rd, 1954. Following this, seven more children were born, and the new family residence was built by hand in Lindenwold, New Jersey. As the oldest daughter, Kathleen grew up caring for her siblings and taking on responsibilities and delegations of the abounding household. This was undoubtedly our mother's greatest and proudest allotment in life. She idolized, adored and tortured all of her brothers, Bobby (Martha), Ronnie (Carol), Jimmy (Janet), Paulie (Joanne), John (Debbie) and David (Kim). She cherished each one of her beautiful sisters, Carol Damore (Ron), Debbie Mirmanesh (Shah), Donna Holmes (Dave) and Diane Harker (Dave). Spending time with them was one of her greatest treasures. Our mother honored her parents' hard work and love of family, centering her universe around her siblings throughout her entire life. She was a rambunctious little girl, with blonde hair, unforgettable brilliant blue eyes, and freckle kissed cheeks. She loved her dolls and riding bikes with her brothers. She would sit and watch her mother create flower arrangements and help her grandmother tend to the younger children. She grew into a free spirited young lady who loved Janis Joplin and planned to runaway to Woodstock until her father found out. During these years, she did her first interior redesign and spray painted a peace sign on her bedroom wall. When her father saw this, he spray painted her hair to match. Her first job was as a waitress at the restaurant located in Lit Brothers Department Store in Voorhees, NJ. When she was sixteen years old she met the man of her dreams, Louie. He introduced her to his own music and took her to his drag races. She married her one and only love in 1972. They honeymooned at the grand opening of Walt Disney World. Soon after, they welcomed their first child, Tina Bianco (Donnie). They bought their first home on West Park Avenue in Lindenwold and had two more daughters, Jennifer Bender (Wayne) and Diane DiPietro. After a few years, Kathy and Lou bought their dream home in Blackwood, New Jersey. This home was where Kathleen continued her traditions with an open door to all. Constantly overflowing with warmth and hospitality, Kathleen always hosted with endless cups of coffee, pots of gravy and conversations we can only imagine at the old wood kitchen table that overlooked the den. Kathleen and Lou created a home where everyone felt welcomed and cozy. There was never a need to call before you came-the door was always open. They generously shared years and years of holiday feasts, sleepovers and pool parties and created unforgettable memories with the Monitzer and DiPietro families, countless friends and neighbors. Kathleen’s love of hospitality and keeping a beautiful home was the foundation on which she built her successful business as an interior decorating consultant with Home Interiors (which later became Signature Home Styles). Long before the interior design craze and easily attainable home decor of today, Kathleen was the go-to girl to obtain the latest decorative trends. Kathleen spent her days home with her family but she spent many nights traveling and tirelessly carrying and displaying her ever changing merchandise in and out of people's homes. She would stand up before strangers and win their hearts with her authentic way of inspiring them to make their homes more stylish and joyful. Throughout her 40 year career, she earned the respect and love of her colleagues and made lifetime connections with clients. Kathleen got so much fulfillment and enjoyment from helping people create beautiful florals, Christmas trees, wall displays and gifts. Everyone called upon her for her expertise. Without a doubt, she is lighting candles, making bows, and fluffing florals in her designer’s paradise with her dearest Home Interior friend and confidant, Barbara Gigliotti. While building her business, Kathleen lived a full life and never skipped a beat. Full of sass and quick wit, she was always the life of the party and she was always up for an adventure. She loved traveling throughout the years with friends and family. Whether it was a weekend getaway to the Poconos, a business trip to Dallas, sight seeing in Tennessee, watching fireworks in Disney World or nights of strolling the Wildwood boardwalk…she was always with good friends or close family living a life full of experiences and personal connections. If there was a party or get together, Kathleen would be making food and coming over early to help set up. That's just who she was. She loved helping make things more enjoyable and beautiful. As a natural born leader she would come along and delegate the way things should be done. She was unapologetically bossy and could get away with it. She didn't hold back her opinion but had a knack of winning your heart in spite of it. Later in life Kathleen’s greatest joys became her six grandchildren, Alyssa and Ava Bianco, Aidan and Juliet Bender, and Gianna and Adrianna DiPietro. She loved spoiling them rotten and they loved every second of her affection and attention. She was each of their biggest fans and certainly set an amazing example of generosity, compassion and strength for them. She taught them not to take themselves too seriously and they filled her heart with pride. We are so utterly heartbroken that they have all been left with a void that no one could ever fill. However, they can now take comfort in knowing that their Mom Mom and Pop Pop will be together in heaven protecting and watching over them. As the matriarch of the Monitzer legacy, Kathleen meant so many things to so many people. She was so loved by of all of her siblings and their spouses. The outpour of their love was everything to her and we will never forget that. Growing up she had many cousins who she treasured, and who loved her equally. She considered her cousins Betty Ann Gilman and Rita Pantalone sisters and the way they loved our mother was so unbelievably touching. She also had very intimate and unique bonds with each of her nieces and nephews and their spouses, especially Lauren McKeever and David Monitzer, Jr, whom she was so honored to be a godmother to. And as remarkable as the Monitzer bonds are, the true beauty of who our mother was outside of that matriarch role is exemplified in the incredible devotion from Lou’s side of the family. To witness the dedication displayed over the last few years by all of our father’s family has been truly touching and beautiful. Especially the adoration of our late grandmother, Marie DiPietro and the devotion and generosity of time spent with her by our Aunt Marianne, Uncle Bobby, Aunt Roe, Uncle Anthony, Aunt Mikki and our cousin Brian DiPietro. We believe that angels do wear wings…but some angels wear scrubs. We would love to thank the awe-inspiring team at Jefferson Philadelphia MICU and all of the incredible and kind hearted nurses at Jefferson Philadelphia. We would like to thank the heaven-sent team at Vitas Hospice Center in Stratford especially Karen Humphries. We would love to thank Dr. Frank Banks and his staff. Dr. Banks visited our Mom at home and reached out to us every day. He displayed exceptional compassion and treated us like his own family in our time of great uncertainty and fear. He offered his reassurance and guidance every step of the way. We would also love to thank Mary Mangano for finding us in the hospital at every opportunity over two years and helping us make sense of the daily medical challenges. Thank you for sitting with us, sitting with our mom and making things seem so much more comfortable in the hospital. As we say goodbye to our precious mother, we would like to honor her wishes with a night of shared memories, funny stories and sweetness. Please join us as we gather with her siblings for coffee and dessert at an open house visitation to continue her legacy on November 21, 2019 from 7-10 o'clock at Trump National Golf Club at 500 West Branch Avenue in Pine Hill, New Jersey. At Kathleen’s request, for those who wish, in lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Kathleen may be made to Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital, an organization that sparked a passion in our parents and inspired them to stay strong through their health challenges.