Former New Jersey resident Lidia Reap, 84, peacefully entered God’s eternal rest at her daughter’s home in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, Aug. 3, 2022.
Lidia was born Feb. 14, 1938, in Baranavichy, Poland (Belarus). Some of her family immigrated from Nazi Germany to the United States on the USS Mercy along with Paul and Marfa Czorniak. They settled as a family in Red Bank. She sadly lost touch with siblings who remained and spread throughout Europe and Ukraine.
Along the way, through high school and beyond, Lidia made lifelong friends. She and her late husband Jim (Big Jim) married in February 1961 and moved to Belford where they raised their two children, Lori and Jay.
A lover of all things, especially her family, friends, holidays, animals, children and walking the beaches at Sandy Hook, Lidia enjoyed life to the fullest.
Having a tremendous green thumb, her flowerbeds and plants were constantly thriving and she marveled with each bloom and critter that visited her gardens.
She worked many years for Bendix Corp, Red Bank Answering Service, and Dr. N. Sanakkayala OB/GYN, making even more friends along the way.
Lidia is survived by her beloved children, Lori Branson, and James Reap IV and his wife Allison; five grandchildren whom she adored, Timothy Branson and his wife Victoria, Caitlin Morgan (Reap) and her husband Patrick, Christopher Branson, Danielle Adames (Branson) and her husband Dom, and Cortney Eifert (Reap) and her husband Corey; plus her crowning jewels of 10 great-grandchildren.
Family and friends visited Aug. 8 at the John E. Day Funeral Home, Red Bank. A funeral home service was offered Aug. 9, followed by burial at Fair View Cemetery in Middletown.
Memories and condolences may be shared at johnedayfuneralhome.com.
The article originally appeared in the August 18 – 24, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
