| Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958 |
| Our Lady of the Angels Individual Memorial Page |
| << Jo Ann Ciolino | Return To List | Karen Culp>> |
| Millicent C. Corsiglia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Memories of Millicent |
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On the day of the fire my sisters, Millicent and Gail, and I went to school as normal. (Gail was in 6th grade and I was in 2nd grade.) Gail walked with her friends, while Millicent and I walked together. At lunch time Millicent and I came home. One of the crossing guards, Aurilis Chiappetta, was teasing Millicent and said he was going to report me for not crossing with the guard. Being 7, I did not understand and did not want to get in trouble so I faked a tummy ache and did not return to school. Millicent went back to school smiling and waving to me in the window as she left. Millicent and Aurilis were both victims of the fire.
Gail was on the second floor in the south wing and escaped unharmed. She was ushered into the Church and then sometime later was told to go home. It was cold and there was a lot going on outside the Church so Gail instead walked to a friend's house where she phoned home.
Mom and I had heard the fire trucks, but Gail's call was our first notification that the school was on fire. -- (Pam Corsiglia, Sister) Millicent was one of the sweetest persons you could have known. She and I were best of friends and she was dearly missed after her death. I know there was a reason she was taken from us at such an early age. Maybe she was someone's little angel. My next door neighbor "Emily Furlan" and I used to go over to the Corsiglia's to play every day and spent so much time over there that I think Millicent's Mom and Dad thought they had five children instead of three. Millicent was my age and her sister Gail was more Emily's age. Millicent's little sister Pam was much younger. The four of us were almost inseparable. Millicent's Mom and Dad were like our second parents. They involved their kids in everything they did and when possible, they also took Emily and I along. When Millicent died there was such a void in all our lives. She was a missing link which could not be replaced. Getting on with our lives was the most difficult time in all of our lives. It was the hardest thing that Emily, Gail, her little sister Pam, and I had to cope with. -- (Carol Vinceri, Friend) Although I didn't know Millicent, I went to school with her sister, Pamela, when the family moved to Hillside. Pam and another student from OLA transferred to St. Domitilla the same year. I wish both families healing and happiness. -- (Anonymous, Friend) My fond memory of Millicent was being invited to one of her birthday parties and seeing her excitement when she received the record "Purple People Eater". -- (Rosemary (Pisani) Bieker, Friend) I recall Millicent as a very smart, pretty, young woman. At the time of the fire, Millicent, Larry Grasso, Michelle Barale, and others were at the same window with me. The fireman was on a ladder, pulling us out. Millicent was in front of me, and I thought that she had gotten out. Larry was behind me. Both Millicent and Larry must have passed out from the smoke, as we were in that room around 15-20 minutes. Ed Glanz |
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