Badger, Josephine (Guarracino) of Woburn, October 13th. Beloved wife of Mark A. Badger. Devoted daughter of Carmine and Concetta Guarracino of Woburn. Cherished daughter-in-law of A. Bruce Badger of China and Maury Badger of Hagerstown, MD. Loving sister of Ann Marie Torres and her husband Hector, Romina Comunale and her husband Michael, Luigi and Jack Guarracino all of Woburn, Lisa Natale and her husband Billy of Medford, Monica Healy and her husband Jim of Burlington, Joseph Guarracino and his wife Joanna of Greenland, NH, Daniela McGilvray and her husband Jay of Reading. Dear Aunt of Kristina, Deanna, Christopher, Benjamin, Alexander and Andrew. Also survived by brothers-in-law Matthew Badger and Kevin O’Connor of Boston. Josephine is further survived by many loving aunts, uncles and cousins. Funeral from the McLaughlin – Dello Russo Funeral Home 60 Pleasant St. Woburn, Wednesday at 9 a.m. followed by a funeral mass celebrated in St. Charles Church 280 Main St., Woburn, at 10 a.m. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Visiting hours Tuesday 3 thru 8. Services will conclude with burial at Wildwood Cemetery, Winchester. It has been requested that in lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Josephine Guarracino Badger Memorial Fund c/o Northern Bank and Trust Co. 303 Main St. Woburn, MA 01801.
For more information please visit Josephine's care pages at www.carepages.com page I.D. jobadger
Josephine Badger, 40; local designer loses battle with breast cancer.
Josephine Guarracino Badger, born Giuseppina Guarracino, was never truly comfortable with the attention her good looks brought to her. As a young girl growing up in Italy she spurned the school yard advances of boys--one unlucky suitor receiving both a fiery stare and blows from her deftly wielded shoe. That independence and determination served her well both then and years later.
Having moved with her family to the United States at age nine, Josephine trained in the graphic arts. She met her future husband Mark in the summer of 1991 at their first job at a marketing company in Boston. The fiesty designer and novice manager did not exactly hit it off. Several different jobs and five years later, the couple reconnected a la “When Harry Met Sally,” beginning their two year courtship with a long-distance romance between Boston and Chicago. The couple returned to Boston and their families in 1997 to start their future.
Four months after their October 1998 wedding in Salem, doctors confirmed that the lump Josephine had found in her left breast was malignant. Despite aggressive treatment, Josephine learned less than two years after initial diagnosis that the cancer had returned, metastasizing to her back. With the second diagnosis came the news that there was no cure (nor is there one today) for metastatic breast cancer, even with increasingly innovative and effective treatments.
Josephine, known to loved ones as Jo, spent the next six years working with practitioners of both traditional and alternative therapies, never losing hope of overcoming her long-term prognosis despite recurring set backs. During this struggle an even more magnificent beauty was forged within Jo: Determination transformed into strength, independence into courage. Determined not to be defined by the illness, Jo nurtured friendships old and new, hosted events with family and friends, and traveled widely; taking trips to Aruba, Guatemala, China, and back to Italy. Despite the looming recession, Jo and Mark established a design studio developing creative solutions for numerous local, regional and national businesses.
This past February, the cancer, which had progressed to her liver and her brain, finally infiltrated Jo´s spinal column. Given a timeframe of just three months, Jo stopped working and she and Mark redoubled their efforts to heal her body. A turning point came when Jo could no longer walk: Mark took a leave from work to care for Jo full time and their friends and family rallied their support. In the final months Jo´s passion for life, for Mark, and for her family intensified, defying her weakening state. Jo´s final two weeks were spent in the constant, loving presence of her family who did everything possible to ensure the comfort of their daughter, sister and wife.
The morning of October 13, 2006, Josephine succumbed to the disease she had battled with unrelenting courage, never losing the beauty and strength that defined her for forty years.
Funeral from the McLaughlin – Dello Russo Funeral Home 60 Pleasant St. Woburn, Wednesday at 9 a.m. followed by a funeral mass celebrated in St. Charles Church 280 Main St., Woburn, at 10 a.m. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Visiting hours Tuesday 3 thru 8. Services will conclude with burial at Wildwood Cemetery, Winchester. It has been requested that in lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Josephine Guarracino Badger Memorial Fund c/o Northern Bank and Trust Co. 303 Main St. Woburn, MA 01801. For more info please visit Josephine’s care pages at www.carepages.com page I.D. Jobadger.