Elly Vega, beacon for others, dies

Loving life, and others, until the end

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The room where Elly Vega lay in repose at Dodge Funeral Home was dark on Jan. 2 when Carol Waldman arrived. It was near closing, but she needed to say one last goodbye to her friend. Waldman said she was relieved when the funeral director gave her permission to go inside.
“I didn’t expect to have private time with Elly, but we had a quiet, intimate time together for 15 minutes,” Waldman said. “I have so many memories in my head, and said them out loud.”
Josepha Vega, who preferred to be called Elly, died on Dec. 29, in her Glen Cove apartment, at age 104, while waiting for an ambulance. Her daughter, Ivonne Dorton, said her mother had been at Glen Cove Hospital for two days in December, suffering from shortness of breath. The diagnosis was valve blockage in her heart, but because of her age, doctors thought it best not to operate. Dorton took her home on Christmas Eve, but another bout with shortness of breath led to Vega’s death.
One day before she died, she had gone to the Glen Cove Senior Center to play bingo, her favorite pastime. She had met Waldman there 18 years ago, when Waldman was the center’s director, and they struck up a lasting friendship.
“Elly was a force — she had what most people wish they had, that love of life,” recalled Waldman, who retired from the center in 2019. “As people get older, they go in a lot of different directions, with some becoming closed off and angry. Elly had a sparkle in her eyes and cared a great deal about other people.”

The senior center was Vega’s second home. She was a volunteer in the kitchen for 17 years, arriving every morning at 7 to make sure the coffee was ready. When she was no longer able to volunteer — well into her 80s — she continued going to the center every day, and took part in whatever activities were offered.
Vega was born without a right hand, but that never stopped her, Dorton said. “With one hand she could sew buttons on a shirt and iron,” her daughter said. “She cooked and loved to bake, and brought her cakes to the center. She had a strong will to do things. That’s what kept her alive.”
If anyone told her she couldn’t do something because of her disability, Vega would be sure to do it. “She was a good example for people with disabilities,” Dorton said. “She’d prove to them that they could do it.”
Vega was born in Puerto Rico in 1917, one of nine children. She came to the U.S. seeking a better life when she was in her 20s. By then she was already a widow and single mother: Her husband had died in World War II, and they had a daughter.
Vega initially settled in the Bronx, living with a sister. Although she had been a nurse in a hospital in Puerto Rico, she could not pursue her career in the U.S. because she could not master English. She volunteered at a hospital instead.
Ivonne was 6 when she came to America, and she went to school in the Bronx. When her mother moved to Glen Cove in the 1960s, however, she stayed in the Bronx. She married Homer Dorton, and they had two sons. When the family visited Puerto Rico, Homer said he wanted to move there, and they did.
During one visit to Puerto Rico, when Vega was in her 70s and had had three operations on a leg, she told her daughter she didn’t feel well. But she was very independent, and didn’t want to move back to Puerto Rico.
When Dorton visited her mother in Glen Cove when she was 98, Dorton could see that she could no longer live by herself. Not wanting to put her in a nursing home, and with her own sons grown, Dorton moved in with her.
“She needed to stay in her apartment,” Dorton said. “A lot of older people get set aside and are taken to nursing homes, and they deteriorate there. That’s no life for a person who gave you life.”
But Dorton’s husband, she said, was the real hero. Homer supported her decision and stayed in Puerto Rico, visiting her whenever possible.
“Caring for Mom was nice,” Ivonne said. “We always got along. She was my best friend, a good listener. I miss everything about her.”
Waldman said it was Dorton’s love that kept Vega alive. Laurie Huenteo, secretary to Christine Rice, the senior center’s executive director, said Dorton was devoted to her mother. “Elly and her daughter were inseparable,” Huenteo said. “Ivonne was a very loving daughter.”
Although Vega was a centenarian, her death surprised some. “I was shocked she died, which I know is ridiculous, because she’s 104, but I just thought she would never die,” said Glen Cove Mayor Pam Panzenbeck, who knew Vega well. “She was stunningly beautiful, and happy all the time.”
Former City Councilman Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews said he never saw Vega not smiling, and he found it hard to fathom that she was over 100. Although their backgrounds were different, he said he felt connected to her.
“She was one of the kindest people I ever met,” Stevenson-Mathews said. “What was important to her was family and caring and looking out for one another. She was a great beacon for so many people.”
Rice described Vega as the most loving and happy person she had ever met. Other senior center members gravitated toward Vega, Rice said. They were protective of her.
Dorton is now going through her mother’s belongings, and said she would make sure they go to people who need them or those who helped her mother. She said she is fulfilling her mother’s wishes.
“My mother taught me to be good to people, to care and to love everyone,” Dorton said. “And she taught me to help someone if I could.”