Joy DeMello

Born in Bronx, NY on November 15, 1962 Departed on December 30, 2018 and resided in Mohegan Lake, NYVisitation: Ballard Durand - Elmsford ChapelThursday January 3, 2019 4:00pm to 8:00pmLife Celebration: Ballard Durand - Elmsford ChapelFriday January 4, 2019 10:00am to 11:00amEntombment: Gate of Heaven CemeteryFriday January 4, 2019

Joy DeMello, 56, passed away peacefully on December 30, surrounded by her loving family - after a courageous battle with cancer. She was born on November 15, 1962 in the Bronx, NY, the youngest of four and daughter to Thomas and the late Elvira Frabizzio.
Joy has always been passionate about her career and establishing lifelong relationships with the people she worked with. Joy was a successful Information Technology leader who worked at New York Power Authority for 17 years, Cartus for 17 years, and at ASME where she spent her final two years. Joy never viewed work as a burden, but instead found great fulfillment in the roles she played as a mentor, leader, and teammate. This speaks to why she was so determined to continue working even while undergoing aggressive treatment and throughout the remainder of her life, overcoming the significant challenges of her illness. Joy's reputation in the workplace was a unique blend, as she was always known to be warm and loyal, often greeted with hugs, yet fierce and strong at the same time. Joy's coworkers who highly respected her granted her the nickname "the lion at the gates" - a name she lived up to not only at work but in her personal life.
Joy married her childhood sweetheart Lou DeMello, 58 on May 13, 1984. Their relationship began at age 13 in Mount Vernon, NY, where they grew up together. They started their family there, and welcomed their first daughter Jenna, 31 and first son Lou, 28. In 1994 they moved to Mohegan Lake, NY, where they built a new home and welcomed (as Joy referred to him) their "miracle baby" and youngest child, Michael, 22. Lou and Joy are the perfect embodiment of true and everlasting love. Their lives revolved around finding Joy in each other and their children.
Joy believed in always treating others with kindness, working hard at everything, cherishing all of life's moments, and finding Joy in the simplest of things. She loved Sunday family dinners, attending her children's sporting events, cooking for her family, watching her husband coach, taking family photos, listening to her father and brothers' life stories, long phone calls with her sister, catching up with her nieces and nephews at family parties, dinners with her friends, playing with her granddaughters and listening to their laughter, making her mother's pot of gravy and meatballs on Sundays, Italian food, and any gathering that involved family.
Joy is survived by her husband of 34 years, their three children, their spouses Nick Ar-Bab and Ashley DeMello, two grandchildren Adriana and Mila Ar-Bab, her father Thomas Frabizzio, his companion Gerri Reed, her brothers Peter and Paul Frabizzio, her sister Ellen O'Leary, her sister-in-law's Lucille and Donna Frabizzio, her brother-in-law Matt O'Leary, and her seven nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her mother Elvira Frabizzio who passed in 1993 at age 57.
Viewing will be held Thursday, January 3, 2019 from 4-8pm at Ballard-Durand Funeral Home 72 E Main St, Elmsford, NY 10523.
Funeral services will start with a viewing from 10-11am at the funeral home on Friday, January 4, 2019 followed by Entombment at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY
In Lieu of flowers, donations may be made to DeGregorio Family Foundation - http://www.degregorio.org/wp/