Kelly Mazzarella, 43

Pearl River, NY

Some adolescents scorn their younger siblings, but not Kelly Mazzarella.

“Most teenagers don’t want to be near their little sisters, but she took me everywhere and embraced me,” says Karen Jedlicka. “Every holiday, everything — Kelly was just my person. We were inseparable.”

Jedlicka and Mazzarella, who passed away May 8, remained close into adulthood.

“I only had to go through one traffic light to get from my house to hers,” says Jedlicka, 37, a teacher who lives in Nanuet.

Mazzarella became a nurse, fitting for someone who “put everyone else before herself,” says her sister. She married her husband, Ronnie, in 2003, and had daughters Hailey and Kristina. The four of them joined Jedlicka’s family for annual camping trips to the Hudson Valley.

“It was her favorite thing to do every year. There were 10 of us, and we would get cabins next to each other. We would go on hayrides, go fishing, get ice cream,” Jedlicka says. “We’re scheduled to go in August. We are hoping to go, at least in her memory.”

In her most recent role as a nurse manager at Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital, Mazzarella worked in the wound care unit, where some patients tested positive for COVID-19. That was in spite of a lupus diagnosis she received in 2019 — the inflammatory disease led to swelling and trouble breathing.

“She still got up every single day and went to work, saying, ‘My job needs me. I need to go,’ ” says Jedlicka.

But by the time Mazzarella decided to scale back due to her own health risks, she had already contracted the coronavirus.

Jedlicka’s friend Nicole Maursky has started a GoFundMe to help Ronnie and the girls with hospital bills and other costs.

“[Mazzarella] put everyone else before herself since she was young,” says Jedlicka. “Physically, emotionally — she just wanted to be there for people.”