1. Sitting on the floor of her dorm room, beginning to pack everything she possibly
could, with a thousand thoughts running through her head, Amber Carozza was trying her
best to hold herself together as her world began to come crashing down around her after
finding out her mother had passed away from a brain aneurism.
It was January 26th, 2011 and it started off just like any other winter day. Cold and
dreary back in New York, the 19 year old was away at school at Coastal Carolina,
enjoying the much warmer weather.
Carozza was awake and heading to class when she received a phone call from her
dad that her mom was being rushed to the hospital. Within two hours, Andrea Carozza,
her mother, had passed away from a brain aneurism.
“I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t really know what to do either, my dad kept
reassuring me that it would be okay, but I just felt as though it was all a bad dream,” said
Carozza. “I had just talked to her that morning, right before she was brining my brother to
school, she sounded like she was running around trying to get my brothers together, so I
told her I would talk to her later, unfortunately I never got a later,” said Carozza.
Confused, scared and heartbroken, Carozza recalls on what it felt like that day and
the many long days after. “I remember sitting there packing my things and I burst into
tears, I didn’t know what to think, or how to react. It was all so sudden,” said Carozza.
Knowing that she had to be strong, especially for her three younger brothers, Vinnie,
Nicholas and Rocco, it was in that moment that she realized, “my world as I knew it had
completely changed and there was nothing I could do about it.” Talking about how her
mom was usually the “fixer” of her family, Carozza said, “If there was a problem, my
mom always knew what to do, or what to say. All I wanted to do was call her for help.”
Unsure of the next step in her life, Carozza talked about how when learning to
deal with her mother’s passing and her life without her mom she said “I am a firm
believer in that everything happens for a reason, and although I may not know the exact
reason I still believe everything happens for a reason. That didn’t make it any easier
though, I still would wonder why it had to happen to me and why it wasn’t someone
else’s parent.”
When describing the morning of her mother’s death Carozza said, “It was the
morning time, my mom had stopped to get gas at the Stewarts up the road before taking
my middle brother Nick to school, she went into the gas station to pay the man and
collapsed.” From that moment, according to Carozza she was transported to St. Francis
Hospital, where she later passed. Taking the lives of fewer than 200,000 people in the
United States per year, brain aneurisms are a rare form of death and require immediate
medical care.
In the days after, Carozza stepped up and almost immediately assumed the role of
mom to her younger brothers. Forced into a situation where life as she ultimately knew it
had changed forever, Carozza was not only faced with grieving her the loss of her mom,
she knew she had to step up for her family and be strong for both her brothers and her
father.
2. “My dad really struggled with it, and that really placed a huge strain on our
relationship, I am so much like my mom that I think I remind him a lot of her, both the
good and the bad things, so I understand how that could be super tough,” said Carozza.
When her dad began dating again shortly after the passing of her mother, Carozza
said how that was “one of the hardest things to cope with, originally I was so selfish and
so mad that he was dating someone new, but now that I look back on it I am so happy
that he has found someone who makes him so happy.” Providing an interesting take on
his new relationships, Carozza touched on how different it was at first, but now, a little
over five years later, her father is happily remarried with a new baby. “I appreciate Luna,
my step mom, a lot more than I did originally, I never thought I would be able to have an
actual relationship with her, but now I am thankful for the relationship I do have with
her.”
Her father, Joe Carozza was brief when he discussed the loss of his wife, but had
a lot of words to say on how much he has seen his daughter grow. “She has turned into a
remarkable young woman, now having a child of her own, she is so strong, I admire her
strength and resilience in even the hardest of situations, it’s really amazing to see how she
turned out,” said Carozza. “I love when she does something that reminds me of Andrea, it
keeps her memory extremely close to my heart, reminding me that although she is not her
physically, she’s never actually that far away.”
“My mom loved holiday’s, so that is one way I really try to keep her memory
alive, we visit her grave and bring flowers and all sorts of things. For Christmas, for
Easter all the different holidays, we just go on everyday as if she’s still here. Lots of
stories are important because it really keeps us remembering her and what she was like
and funny things she used to do, she was just the best and that is how we remember her,”
said Carozza.
“Even though it was some of the worst days of my life, and I miss my mom all the
time, I’m so thankful to have the family and friends that I do and the memories with her
that I have. She was the best person I have ever know and as cliché as it sounds, I truly
would not be where I am today without the people in my life,” said Carozza.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDzlIS-0HU&feature=youtu.be
Source List:
Amber Carozza – Date Interviewed: 4/09/2016 (845-380-0307)
Joe Carozza – Date Interviewed: 4/15/2016 (845-381-0308)
http://www.brainaneurysm.com date accessed: 4/16/2016
