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In Memory of Connie Lepovsky
In 1999, while I was still very new at surfing online and visiting websites, and meeting people, I signed up for a MLM program, and got an email from my upline, Connie. She was very friendly and soon we were talking about many other things and finding we had many interests in common. It didn't take me long to realize that the MLM was not for me and I couldn't afford to go beyond the free level, however, Connie and I just became closer friends. Looking back I realize she was my very first internet friend or Pen Pal, and I've had many, both through snail mail, and by email.
Connie was also the editor and publisher of the AngelWatch ezine. Through her I learned some things about running my own ezine list. She became my most loyal reader and often sent encouragement notes after she'd read my ezines, first the JournalDigest and then the RoseBouquet. Connie was simply my number one FAN.
When I hinted that I needed a proof-reader for my novel, Connie was the first to volunteer, and she indicated that she had once been a typesetter and that entailed some proof-reading too. She did a great job and her suggestions improved my manuscript considerably! (It was published in March 2001 with Booklocker).
We talked of many things in our correspondence, but Connie realized that I was far busier with my many ventures so she always insisted that I should not answer her until I was caught up with everyone else. That meant long breaks when I tried to stick to that rule.
One thing she did not like to do is send out her photo. She once sent me a printed copy of AngelWatch which had a photo of her wedding with Charlie Lepovsky, but it was a blurry photocopy. So I never really knew what Connie looked like.
Shortly after they were married, they had moved to Florida and they loved it there. But lack of work and the need of Charlie's parents in New Jersey for some caregivers took them back there. Here they lived in one room. I suspect it was not always pleasant but Connie rarely wrote anything negative about anyone, so I had to pick that up from between the lines. She was always upset if she realized after the fact that she had let a compliant or negative word slip out.
I knew she had diabetes and a heart condition, and swelling in her legs or feet that sometimes oozed fluid, and which made it impossible to wear shoes. When she did go out in public it was with slippers, but that was rarely.
Connie referred to Charlie often with doting love, and bragged on how he helped with dishes, etc. Sometimes she asked prayer as he tried to find work.
Connie's birthday was on July 7th, and on her birthday this year (2009), I remembered her as I was writing my RoseBouquet and decided to point her out as one of the key roses in my RoseBouquet of dear friends. I expected to hear back from her immediately, thanking me and raving about me - as she usually did. But nothing came.
As the days wore on through that week I recalled that I had not heard from her in quite a while - several weeks in fact. I began to wonder.
On the Friday late afternoon when I got home from the office I found a distraught letter from Charlie informing me that Connie had collapsed and had been in hospital for a couple of weeks already. She was not responsive and seemed to sleep continuously. He didn't know what to do. I was glad that he had found my address and decided to write. He didn't know how to touch the computer, so could not use that at all, but he wanted to let me know.
I phoned him that evening and begged for more details.
I phoned again on the Sunday evening, and it seemed Connie was holding her own, so I let a busy week go by before I called again. When I did, Charlie reported that he had been in hospital himself for diabetes tests and guidance, and that during that time Connie had died. She went home to be with the Lord on July 19th, 2009. He had called her sisters in the mid-west, and together they had agreed to cremation and no funeral service.
Oh, I thought. If I were closer I would have tried to have even a small, intimate memorial service for Connie!
Since I work on websites all the time, and had build this one for Connie (with the understanding that I was to inherit it if anything happened to her), I decided that the next best thing was to prepare a memorial page for Connie.
When I asked Charlie for a photo of Connie he sent me the original of their wedding scene as that was about the only one of her that existed. I have scanned it to use here. He explained that Connie's friend, Sister Eileen Freeman, who wrote "Touched by an Angel" was their witness, and also a neighbour from over the fence.
I had access to Connie's mailing list on this site, so I sent out an announcement email to them, telling of her passing. She had discontinued it a few years ago because she was not able to get online as much as she wanted, but I was pretty sure that many of her individual correspondent friends might be on that mailing list and I had no other way of discovering them to notify them.
As a result several sent me notes to add to this memorial page. These follow here.
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I am terribly sorry to hear of Sister Connie's passing. My heart truly goes out to Charlie. There, but for the Grace of GOD .
Bishop Shultis
Obey Acts 2:38 To Be Saved
Rev. Rodney V. Shultis FL. State Bishop
JCAM Inc.
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Thank you for letting me know. I am heart broken to hear this. Connie and Charlie were two angels who blessed my life beyond compare. There will
never be another person quite like Connie in this world. She will be missed.
God bless you always.
Joe Mazzella
"Joe Cool"
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I wrote for Angelwatch for two years and all I can say, is that Connie was a very good host she was friendly in all her emails and very considerate of every topic she published. I feel for Charlie, if you can tell him that connie, Is dancing with the angels. Dancing Angels was an article I wrote for the newsletter and he had her write to tell me it touched him. Thank you.
John r. Ware
ps. please give him my condolances.
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I am absolutely shocked to hear of Connie's passing. I knew she had some medical problems but had no idea that they were so serious. She seemed much more concerned about Charlie than herself. I will certainly pray for her travels to the Lord and for Charlie's health improvements. Of course, at this time, due to his bereavement, his health may falter somewhat, but hopefully he will persevere.
I never physically met Connie, but after reading an AngelWatch magazine that she had just taken over from another editor, I sent her an email telling her of several typographical errors and offering to check out her future issues before they went out. She wrote back immediately and took up on my offer, saying that what actually happened was that some computer glitch had messed up her work. After that, she would send me her proof copy and I would send back the corrected version. Eventually, I didn't have as much to do because the computer "got better!" However, we continued to communicate because we enjoyed doing so. She did send me a picture of her and Charlie when they got married, so I had an idea of what she and he looked like.
I did wonder why I hadn't heard from her in recent months and she wrote back saying she had health problems, but nothing to worry about. She was taking time off from AngelWatch for a bit, so I didn't worry about it. However, it's strange but about a week ago, I thought about Connie just out of the blue and thought I'd run off a message to her, but never got around to it because of other things going on.
Thank you for telling me of this sad news as I would otherwise never have heard anything about it.
Bless you,
Sue Evans
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Lots to tell and we go back many years when she worked for Eileen Elias Freeman, author of Touched by Angels -- the book that inspired the TV show.You probably know all this, but Eileen went on to be a nun. It all started when I watched a TV special ca. 1994 called "Angels, Messengers of God" on which Eileen appeared. Then I bought Eileen's book, which I still have. At the end of her book was a note about how to subscribe to her monthly magazine, AngelWatch Journal. I, in turn, subscribed back in Sept of 1994, and still have a copy of the letter I wrote to her tucked in my book.
A few years latter, Connie joined the AngelWatch team as Eileen's secretary. After Eileen became a nun, Connie moved to Orlando where the AngelWatch headquarters eventually moved to Winter Park, near where I live. However, although I still rec'd the monthly magazine (then by mail) I never knew Connie personally.
Connie and Charley moved back to New Jersey. Shortly after that the magazine became an ezine and was sent free by e-mail.. I guess it would have been about 10 years ago that Connie and I made contact personally. I e-mailed her about somethng she had written in her newsletter and that we lived in Winter Springs near Orlando where she used to live. From then on we corresponded regularly and discovered we had many common interests.
I was in the process of writing a novel and she also enjoyed writing. From time to time we would send each other samples of our writing efforts. I since discovered I was more of an editor than I writer, and when she was writing "Mary's Diary" she would e-mail me a chapter a day that I edited it for her. It was such a beautiful story, I encouraged her to have it published but she told me she promised God that she would never take money for it.
I eventually gave up on my writing and she used to bug me about that all the time telling me that I was hiding my talent under a bushel -- as the Bible says :)
Connie was the perpetual optimist, always cheerful, encouraging, compassionate and caring. She would always tell me she was storming the heavens in prayer when I my husband had major health problems in 2005 and almost died in 2006. Bless her heart. Then about a year or so ago she confided in me about some of the difficulties they were going through. Naturally I encouraged her to hang in there and that I would pray for her. But I believe their situation was a lot worse than she let on.
Many blessings,
Carole Imes (Mrs. Walter Greer Imes Jr.)
Winter Springs, FL
WorldConnect.rootsweb.com
ancestry.com/fhs/home.aspx?tid=38059
findagrave.com
AndreaCaroll.com
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