FRANKLIN SQUARE — Seven years ago, Susan Grace Ambrosino’s family was shocked when the 26 year old and the baby she was carrying were murdered.
The facts soon emerged that Ambrosino, who was about three months pregnant, was shot by the father of the child who wanted her to abort that life. She refused. Her death ended that new life and left her daughter, Taylor, then nine, her parents, a sister, a brother and other family to grieve their losses.
“She didn’t want to give up having her baby,” said Deborah Clark, Ambrosino’s sister.
The family lived with their grief as well as their love and pride for the young woman and her sacrifice. They named the unborn baby Gerard, after St. Gerard Majella, the patron of women in childbirth. Yet, they wanted to do more.
So last year they held the first “Remembrance Baby Shower” honoring Susan Grace. More than 100 people came to the home of her mother, Josephine Detz, a parishioner of St. Catherine of Sienna Church here, bringing baby supplies which were distributed to mothers and their babies at Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre.
“We wanted to keep the memory of Susan alive,” said Richard DiBartolo, her uncle.
“We wanted to find a way to make it better,” Detz said. “We wanted to help women in that situation,” facing pregnancy without support. So she and her family initiated the baby shower.
Ambrosino’s first baby, Taylor, was born at Mercy “and she got wonderful care,” according to Detz, so they decided to give the items to Mercy for low-income women who were having babies there.
“The response was amazing,” Detz said. “People came from all over Long Island and filled up 27 laundry baskets with donations.” She attributed much of the response to a notice that ran last year in The Long Island Catholic.
Though the shower was a one-day event, Detz explained, “people kept dropping off items on my front stoop.” So she began sending items to Bethany House, a network of shelters for homeless women and children, and Regina Residence, a Catholic Charities home for women who are keeping their babies but lack financial and family support.
Last year’s shower was so successful that last Sunday the family had its second annual event, filling their living room with donations of baby shoes, stretchies, and bibs, as well as bottles, infant formula, and an array of toddler clothes which hung from a bar.
Msgr. Richard Figliozzi, pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna here, praised Josephine Detz as “a faithful women who has taught in our religious education program for many years,” and who has persevered despite “the cross that she and her family have been bearing.”
The sight of the assembled gifts was striking. “There’s a lot of stuff here,” said one boy as he stared at the many donations amassed. Family, friends, as well as strangers arrived over several hours bringing their donations and usually stopping to have a cup of coffee and some of the cookies baked by Ambrosino’s nieces.
“It just touched my heart,” said Lina Alcide, who read about the shower and wanted to help.
“I loved Susan,” said Marie Russo, a neighbor, “and I’m also proud of women who stand up for their unborn babies.”
Despite the tragedy that gave birth to this shower, those who came and stayed enjoyed the opportunity to remember Susan Grace Ambrosino, to partake in each other’s company, and to contribute toward helping other women. Many wore pins with Ambrosino’s photo.
“It’s a happy day, not a sad day,” said Ambrosino’s daughter Taylor, now 16. “It makes me feel happy that we are turning it around to do good.”
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