Stella Rohrmann (neé Chirchillo) was born on October 18, 1923, and grew up in Elizabeth, NJ. Her lifetime wish was to be a nurse, but though her dream was unattainable, she always tried to make sure her children respected the education she was unable to complete and spent her life as nurse/caretaker to her 5 children and 6 grandchildren, inviting anyone brought home through the years to eat at her table, stay in her home, and become part of the family.
As a young woman, she sang in operettas, played badminton, rode horses, survived tuberculosis, worked at the Singer factory as a bookkeeper, and fell in love at age 18 with a German-born machinist, also at Singer, who decided to join the US Army in 1942 to help defeat a German named Hitler. Her new husband brought Mom to Germany after the war; she set up household while he interrogated Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg. Mom learned a new language and culture, made lifelong friends, and began her life as an army wife, with two of her children born in the country her husband helped liberate. Her German skills never left her, but her children are grateful that her kitchen remained Italian.




