Notes:

Also known as: Nica

She was the youngest of 8 children.

She said you didn't need to be dirty to be poor. She was raised in a well to do environment, but not in luxury. A colored woman would cook her 3 meals a day. When she was married in Savanah, she moved to North NJ where her husband had a job. She lived for a short time in a bording house because she didn't know how to cook. In just 19 years she was a widow, but she knew how to be a business woman to manage the house and take care of their 6 children. She was always "the lady" through out. She got the 4 boys through college, and the boys earned their way. She turned out to be a marvelous business women. She moved everyone to a smaller house when her husband died. Her son Miguel's first paycheck was used to hire a colored woman to come and clean the house and wash clothes, because from that point she had raised the 6 children by herself. It was in the 1932's which were in the days of the depression when she raised the kids, so things did not come easy. She didn't like to cook, because it was not of her upbringing, however she did cook for the kids.

She once bought a house in Ocean City and rented the lower floor while she lived with the kids in the upper floor. Her sister (Dena) would come and visit at this house, along with "Uncle George" for a time. They lived with the family for a time as well which made it hard. Uncle George stoked the furnace when needed, which Antonica wasn't able to do. The boys went to college in Swarthmore, except for Neligan who went to Drexal in Philadelphia.

In her later years she loved craft work. A bedspread was handed down that she knitted, also loved to sew and paint on cloth.