LEONARDIA (MASKIEWICZ) O’BRIEN

LEONARDIA (MASKIEWICZ) O’BRIEN – of Randolph, died peacefully April 23^rd at the age of ninety-five. Beloved wife of the late John F. O’Brien. Devoted mother of Kathryn O’Brien Bordonaro, her husband Peter of NY, NY; Elizabeth Murphy, her husband Robert of Seattle WA; and Daniel O’Brien, his wife Mary (Connolly) of Woburn. Dear sister of the late Alexander Maskiewicz. Proud grandmother of Michael Bordonaro (Aggie), Margaret Bordonaro Solarz (Greg), Maura O’Brien Banks (Andrew), Meaghan and Joseph O’Brien and great-grandmother of Grace and Clementine Bordonaro and Lorenzo and Stella Solarz. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Charles Church, 280 Main Street, Woburn, on Monday, April 28^th at 11 a.m.  Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to calling hours, from 9:30-10:45 a.m. PRIOR to her Funeral Mass in the Lynch-Cantillon Funeral Home, 263 Main Street, Woburn, MA 01801.  Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Leonardia’s memory to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, PO Box 91891, Washington, D.C. 20090.

Leonardia Steffania Maskiewicz O’Brien, known as Nard, was born on April 11, 1930 at home, 5 Scotland Road, Newbury, Massachusetts.  Her parents Joseph and Stella (Woitowicz) Maskiewicz were Polish immigrants from a part of Eastern Europe that the czar had claimed control of.  They came to the United States in 1912 to pursue the opportunities denied them in Europe but offered in the US.

In 1927 they had bought a 50-acre farm in Newbury and were raising their son there, when their daughter was born.  Newbury was a very rural town with more cows than people.  In 1930 there were only 1530 residents in the town.  Scotland Road was unpaved with just three farmhouses.  The country was in the throes of the Depression.  Times were tough in the nation and its people.  But Nard’s family grew their own food and raised their own animals, and so they managed.

While born in Massachusetts, Nard spoke Polish as her first language.  Because there was no kindergarten offered, she spoke no English until she was six when her 16-year-old brother, Alexander, taught her enough English to get started in first grade at the Woodbridge School.  Once she started school, she caught up quickly and spoke English like a native speaker.  At the same time at home, she learned to read and write Polish and remained bilingual for the rest of her life.

Newbury had no high school and sent its students to Newburyport High School.  Nard flourished there and stayed in first or second place in the class through her four years.  After high school, she went on to a five-year nursing program at Bates College where she earned a BS from Bates and an RN from the New England Baptist Hospital in 1953.  She was far ahead of the nurses of the time as they almost universally just had a two-year RN.

At Bates College, she met and married her classmate, the late John F. O’Brien.  They married in 1953 and enjoyed a 69-year romance.  As newlyweds they lived in Washington DC for almost a year.  John was finishing his stint in the US Army and Nard worked in DC hospitals.  In 1954 they moved back to Lewiston, Maine for a year for John to finish his bachelor’s. While in Lewiston, Nard worked at the then-named Central Maine General and had her first child, Kathryn.  Then in 1955 they moved to Boston where they made their home in the city, and finally in Randolph MA for the rest of their lives. 

For the first five years of their marriage, Nard worked as a nurse in hospitals and schools.  For a time she even did substitute biology teaching in the Boston Public Schools.  She supported their family of three while John finished his degrees.  Once her husband had finished graduate school, she became a full-time homemaker and had two more children, Elizabeth and Daniel.  She had many happy years at home.  She loved being a wife and mother.  She enjoyed all the domestic duties and excelled at cooking, canning, sewing, knitting.  She also enjoyed playing bridge and often practiced bidding with John in the evenings after dinner.  She loved the natural world and the beach.  Cape Cod held a special place in her heart. While her everyday life was focused in Boston, every week the whole family returned to Newbury to spend time with her parents and help with the farm work.  She was a dutiful and loving daughter.

Nard liked to help out.  She was a den mother; she collected for the Cancer Society and Heart Association on the block.  She used her nursing skills to take care of relatives when they were sick or recovering from an operation.  When she returned to work in the mid-1970’s, she worked at the Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain for almost 20 years on the post-operative ward.  She took great satisfaction in helping patients recover and get home.

Although Nard was back working full time, she took time to travel with friends and family.  She revelled in her five grandchildren as they came along.  Always ready with a bit of fun for them.  One granddaughter liked jokes so Nard kept a book of jokes by the phone to read aloud and amuse this child.  She welcomed a teen-age grandson for a summer so that he could volunteer at the Science Museum and earn his keep by cutting the lawn.  She and her husband spent as much time as they could with their college friends Bob and Cil Rice: visiting and travelling together.

When diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her 60’s, Nard retired and focused on wellness routines to maintain the quality of her life and prolong it as long as possible.  She wanted to enjoy her family and friends for as long as possible.  She vacationed on the Cape every year with her New York grandkids.  She astounded everyone with her virtuoso playing of the mandolin; never having been formally trained, she had an ear for music and could play almost any song on request.  She also read widely in these years.  She orchestrated a pre-Thanksgiving pie baking day for her Woburn grandkids.  But she always made a surprise pie for the actual holiday.  The person who guessed the secret ingredient won a small monetary prize.  One of the oddest pies was a parsnip confection!  And one guest figured it out and received the award.

Loving and loved, Nard left an indelible mark on her world and will be sorely missed by family and friends.

Beloved wife of the late John F. O’Brien. Devoted mother of Kathryn O’Brien Bordonaro, her husband Peter of NY, NY; Elizabeth Murphy, her husband Robert of Seattle WA; and Daniel O’Brien, his wife Mary (Connolly) of Woburn. Dear sister of the late Alexander Maskiewicz. Proud grandmother of Michael Bordonaro (Aggie), Margaret Bordonaro Solarz (Greg), Maura O’Brien Banks (Andrew), Meaghan and Joseph O’Brien and great-grandmother of Grace and Clementine Bordonaro and Lorenzo and Stella Solarz.

 A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Charles Church, 280 Main Street, Woburn, on Monday, April 28^th at 11 a.m.  Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to calling hours, from 9:30-10:45 a.m. PRIOR to her Funeral Mass in the Lynch-Cantillon Funeral Home, 263 Main Street, Woburn, MA 01801.  Interment will be private.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in St. Charles Church, 280 Main Street, Woburn, on Monday, April 28^th at 11 a.m.  Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to calling hours, from 9:30-10:45 a.m. PRIOR to her Funeral Mass in the Lynch-Cantillon Funeral Home, 263 Main Street, Woburn, MA 01801.  Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Leonardia’s memory to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, PO Box 91891, Washington, D.C. 20090.