Ida Esposito: Grumman Aerospace secretary put family first
Ida Esposito died of the coronavirus on April 15 at age 92. Credit: MaryJean Rosenbrock
In the dictionary of Ida Esposito, family came first.
After her daughter MaryJean Rosenbrock gave birth to her first child, Esposito retired from her job to help take care of the baby.
“Family was a big, big thing for my mom,” said Rosenbrock, 60, a legal assistant for a Melville-based law firm. “She took care of us all.”
Esposito died of COVID-19 on April 15 at Huntington Hills Center for Health and Rehabilitation in Melville. She was 92.
Esposito was born on April 21, 1927, to Joseph and Catherine Catanese in Brooklyn. She married her husband, Emilio Esposito, in 1947. They were married for 53 years before Emilio died in 2000. She worked as a secretary for Grumman Aerospace for nearly 25 years before retiring.
Katie McNally, who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia, remembered her grandmother being a big part of her childhood.
Esposito babysat McNally and her sister, Michelle Rosenbrock of Scotland, until they went to kindergarten. Because Esposito lived close to the preschool the sisters attended in Farmingdale, she and her husband would drop off and pick up the girls from school.
“She was really easygoing, sweet and caring,” said McNally, 30. “She always put me and my sister first.”
For the Espositos, Sunday was a family day when everyone came to Esposito’s Massapequa house for dinner.
“She could make a pot of sauce like nobody else,” said Rosenbrock, of Westbury. “As a matter of fact, her granddaughter always [said]: ‘Oh, Nana, please make lasagna.’ She made great food.”
Family members also described Esposito as someone who could be counted on.
“She was a strong woman. [She] always taught you to hold your head up,” Rosenbrock said. “She always knew what to say and do when we were having any kind of crisis in our life.”
In addition to MaryJean Rosenbrock, McNally and Michelle Rosenbrock, Esposito is survived by her son, Steven Esposito of Massapequa. A funeral was held on April 30 over Zoom. The family said a private memorial service will be held at a later date.
