VERNIE A. ZACH.

Loving, generous, and fiercely proud of her family are words that come to mind when describing VERNIE ZACH. Such were the traits that came with growing up as the youngest of four daughters of Polish immigrants in the heart of blue-collar, post-depression Cleveland.

Vernie passed away peacefully on Monday morning (November 27) after a long illness. She is survived by her sons Paul, Mark and Chris and grandchildren Christopher, Sarah, Monica, Mark, Matthew, and Sean. Her journey to heaven will reunite Vernie with her beloved husband Tony, whom she lost on July 30, 2006 after 57 years of marriage.

Vernie was born on January 9, 1929, to Steve and Mary Krupa. She and her dear sisters Mary Donay, Gertrude Zgodzinski, and Florence Gombach (all deceased) spent their early years in the old Corlett neighborhood. After moving to a double family house on 139th Street between Harvard and Miles Avenues, she went to St. Mary of Czestochowa Catholic School, then graduated from John Adams High School. There, she also met and married the boy next door, Anthony P. Zacharewicz. Everyone simply knew him as Tony Zach after the family shortened its name to make life easier on their kids and their schoolteachers.

Those children and now their children have all admired and still strive to live up to Vernie's legacy of hard work and devotion to family. And that's not easy. Paul recalls Mom coming home late at night from the colorful Marty's Turfside restaurant in Northfield, where she worked as waitress carrying weighty trays loaded with food to diners and later easily catered to movie stars, singers and sports legends alike at the front desk of the adjoining Highlander Hotel.

Vernie was prouder, however, of the more than 20 years she worked at St. Alexis Hospital as a medical librarian. Mark notes that she spent hours cataloguing materials manually. She lifted heavy medical textbooks and went through volumes to find research requested by doctors.

Still, Vernie found time to indulge in her love of travel.  She often brought her addictive homemade chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies and more to her sons during their years at Ohio University and University of Arizona. She even managed to coax her husband into the long flight to Honolulu to visit Paul when he was on a fellowship program at the University of Hawaii.

Chris often talks of the numerous trips she took with him and his wife, Cathy, and their family to Florida, Maumee Bay, and Hilton Head. Mark and his wife Margaret took her along on family trips to Toronto and the Oglebay Resort. But Vernie always regretted not making it as far as Singapore for the wedding of Paul and Mornee in 1999 and the birth of their son Sean.

While she saw grandchild Christopher marry Stephanie, who live and work in the Washington D.C. area, she sadly was too ill to attend the recent wedding of grandchild Mark Christian, to Halley - or the concerts young Mark has performed while working at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which Vernie proudly supported as a charter member.

For many a family birthday, communion, Thanksgiving, and Christmas back home, though, Vernie cooked much of the food herself and baked desserts that included mouth-watering apple pies as well as those scrumptious cookies. She was also admired, even envied, for an incredible willingness to always lend a helping hand to all her relatives, friends, and neighbors. And all are welcome to pay their respects to Vernie for her amazing life so well lived at LATEK & RYBICKI, A GOLDEN RULE FUNERAL HOME, 7906 Broadview Rd. for visiting hours  from 2 to 4 pm and 6 to 8 pm on Friday . Services will be held on Saturday (December 2), at 9:15 am at the funeral home and at 10 am at St. Basil the Great Church at 8700 Brecksville Road, Brecksville, Ohio.