Virginia Belle (Hadley) Wawrczyniak Simoni, 1925-2024
Virginia was born on March 25, 1925 in Massachusetts to David Guy Hadley (born in Gloucester) and Violet Wiles (born in Nova Scotia, Canada). After graduating from Woburn high school, Virginia became a nurse during World War II with the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps (CNC) in Chicago. Virginia maintained life-long friendships with several CNC enrollees with whom she trained including Helen Burns and Doris Kalinowski.
She met her first husband Edward Wawrzyniak while working at a hospital in Chicago. He was a veteran suffering from cancer and his devout Catholic faith inspired her. After a short courtship, they married and prayed for a miracle recovery, but unfortunately he died several months later.
She then became a novitiate for the Sisters of Charity, Grey Nuns, a Catholic order in Montreal, Canada. After 8 years, she realized that was not her vocation. She earned her Bachelor's degree in nursing and her Master's degree in nursing education, both from Boston College.
Virginia met her husband Henry W. Simoni, at a Catholic Alumni dance and married in September 1960. It was only Henry’s death in 1989 that separated them, after 29 years of love and laughter. If they ever quarreled, no child of theirs can remember it.
She was a devoted and caring mother. At one point, all five children under the age of seven, and then later five teenagers in the house!
Virginia’s career encompassed many aspects in the field of nursing: working the floor in Mount Auburn Hospital, managing the nursing care provided in a New Hampshire hospital, teaching LPNs at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School in Massachusetts, and as the office nurse at Dr. John Shaver’s medical practice in Mansfield for many years before her retirement, at which point she continued working alongside her husband Henry in a local pharmacy.
Her children all benefited from the love, care, and attention she displayed to them - as did any others lucky enough to find themselves in her presence. Her spirit of humility, love, and charitable interest in others was amazing to witness. She never lost her characteristic good nature or deep faith during the ravages of vascular dementia. She enjoyed the many friends developed during her fifty years in Mansfield, where she was a communicant and volunteer at St. Mary's Parish and brought communion to homebound parishioners. She was a frequent visitor to the elderly sharing friendship and love.
Virginia passed peacefully, on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at Mercy Retirement & Care Center in Oakland, CA where she had lived after her daughter Diane and son-in-law Max provided loving and attentive in-home care to her for many years. Virginia leaves her children Henry Wilson (of Maryland), Robert Guy (of California), Jane Marie (of Maryland), Stephen John (of California) and Diane Chtangeeva (of California), and five beloved grandchildren, Corey Stein, Ashley (Stein) Pellerin, Henry William Simoni-Wastila, Lea Simoni-Wastila, and Amaya Simoni-Walters. She was predeceased by her husbands Edward and Henry, her parents Guy and Violet Hadley, and her siblings Paul Hadley and Jean Boggs.
Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend visiting hours on Thursday, February 8th from 5:00-8:00 P.M. at the Sherman & Jackson Funeral Home, 55 North Main Street, Mansfield.
Her funeral will begin on Friday, February 9th at 10:30 A.M. from the funeral home, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial celebrated at 11:30 A.M. in Saint Mary’s Church, 330 Pratt Street (Route 106) Mansfield. Burial will follow at Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Mansfield.
It was Virginia’s wish that any memorial tributes be made in the form of charitable donations to Birthright where she volunteered for many years. Birthright has since changed its name to Abundant Hope PRC/ P.O. Box 537/ Attleboro, MA 02703.
To send her family a message of condolence, please visit www.shermanjackson.com