Joy Chiavetta, 50, physical therapist, proud mom

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 11 / Devember 6 - 12, 2006

By Albert Amateau

Joy Dorothy Chiavetta, born and raised in Chelsea and a resident most of her life of Penn South, died Dec. 2 at her brother’s home in Pleasantville, N.Y., after a two-year struggle with breast cancer. She was 50.

Hundreds of friends and neighbors attended her wake on Dec. 5 at Reddens Funeral Home on W. 14th St. where a friend, Ronnie Mercedes, a recording artist and musical theater actor, sang her farewell.

Joy came to Penn South when she was 6 years old with her father and mother, Abe and Adele Chiavetta, and attended P.S. 33. She attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, where her father was a teacher, and later earned a Master’s of Social Work degree at Hunter College. She became a physical therapist and worked for 10 years at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Her mother died of breast cancer several years ago.

A little over five years ago Joy Chiavetta adopted a 3-month-old black girl, Ava Rose, through Catholic Charities. About a year later, the agency phoned and asked if Joy wanted to adopt Johnny, Ava’s younger brother, according to Joy’s father, Abe. As a single mother, Joy had to decline but she recommended her close friends Carolyn and Scott Kearns, who became Johnny’s foster parents. The two children now know each other as brother and sister and see each other often, Abe said. Since Joy became seriously ill, Ava Rose has been living with Joy’s brother, David, and sister-in-law, Loretta, in Pleasantville, N.Y.

In addition to Joy Chiavetta’s father and brother, her stepmother, Lil Chiavetta, also survives. Contributions may be made in Joy’s memory to the Ava Rose Chiavetta Education Fund, c/o Abraham Chiavetta, 290 Ninth Ave. # 4F, NY, NY 10001.

A memorial service in late January will be announced later.