Monica Christine DeFeo

Monica Christine DeFeo, 53, previously of Newtown, died September 12, in her new home in Scituate, Mass., after a hard-fought battle with breast cancer. She was born August 17, 1959, in New York City, to Fina and Josef Muller, who both immigrated to America from Germany after World War II. Ms DeFeo was raised in Danbury.

She was a loving and devoted wife to Joseph DeFeo and mother to three sons Chris, Mark, and Joe, and her dog, Rocky, and she was a dedicated sister to her three siblings, Anne Murphy, Lore Di Chiaro, and Joe Muller.

Ms DeFeo graduated from Danbury High School and Western Connecticut State University. She was a dedicated volunteer in the Newtown School System and a devoted member of St Rose of Lima Church.

Her commitment to family, her emphasis on the importance of education, and her ability to have fun while caring for her family and friends and serving her community made her a person everyone loved. Ms DeFeo loved gardening, skiing, and, in recent years, golfing, a sport where her determination and composure helped her to dominate the four men in her family on any golf course.

As her disease progressed, she became an active patient advocate, building and relying on a network of cancer professionals engaged in researching breast cancer, and collaborating with her doctors to determine the best care possible to balance her quality of life. She did not limit her activism to her own disease. To encourage others to take control of a seemingly uncontrollable illness, she became a patient advocate advisor with Danbury Hospital Research Institute. She wanted to be remembered as a fun loving, courageous fighter, not only for her life but for the quality of life that we all deserve.

Funeral services were conducted September 17.

Ms DeFeo had asked that memorial donations be made to Danbury Hospital Research Institute, 131 West Street, Danbury CT 06810. This new institute is a unique organization with a mission to help develop new treatments for improving the quality of life for cancer patients as well as supporting the continued education for patients to help them learn to fight their disease.

The Newtown Bee     September 21, 2012