Courier-Post Staff
Joe DiGiacomo, (photo, left) and Arthur \”Ott\” Pacifico were bewitched five decades ago by the Boyle sisters from Gloucester City, Eppie and Cissie.
The married couples became an inseparable foursome.
Through years of raising families in the same duplex, vacationing in Avalon Manor when they still had to cart in water, and sharing a household best described as unusual, the two brothers-in-law were also fast friends.
Their friendship grew closer when their wives died and their children and neighbors started referring to them as the \”odd couple of Gloucester City.\”
Both died within the last five months at 87.
\”They headed strong Italian families, with good values, and lots of love,\” says Patrick Healey, whose funeral home welcomed what seemed like the entire town for the funerals of both men.
\”You never saw one without the other, and you never saw either without a smile.\”
Pacifico died in November, several months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. DiGiacomo died April 14.
\”I think he missed my uncle so much that he died of loneliness,\” says one of DiGiacomo\’s five children, Gloucester City resident Jo-Ann Allison.
Both men were ushers at St. Mary\’s Church and attended senior citizen meetings. They drove neighbors to doctor appointments and the supermarket, and were part of a group of about 20 oldtimers who met to play cards.
\”They lived together longer than they were married to their wives,\” Allison says.
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