She loved her friends, she loved her family, and she took a lot of time to show it.
That’s just one of many ways how Cherry Hill resident Michelle Sell would describe her late mother Mary Deaux, who passed away on July 17 after battling an aggressive form of a rare cancer.
“She was always the kind of person who was thinking of other people,” Sell said. “She loved being able to do other things for people. She was the adventure type. She loved rollercoasters and water parks, and we spent a lot of time at the community pool with her. She loved water and the beach. I really enjoyed going to different theme parks with her.”
A longtime resident of Mount Laurel, Deaux was born on April 2, 1958, in Bridgeport, CT, to the late Frederick and Isabelle Fahrendorf. She was raised in Franklin Lakes, NJ, and was a 1976 graduate of Immaculate Heart Academy High School. After graduating, she furthered her education at Stonehill College and graduated in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
Prior to retiring just a year ago, Deaux was a successful real estate agent for Long and Foster in Cherry Hill, a career she cared for very deeply. Her favorite beach was Brigantine, so she always made plenty of time to pay the special spot a visit. Deaux was also a member of the South Jersey Ski Club, and she loved tending to her garden, sewing, and hosting and treating her family and guests to delicious meals. A few of Deaux’s award-winning recipes were published in several local publications, including her famous Perfect Pot Pie, but for Sell, it’s hard to choose her favorite. If she had to narrow it down, she would go for her mom’s fresh orzo salad, which featured plenty of vegetables.
The friendships that Deaux made were precious to her and she held them close to her heart. Years ago, she met a mother of two young boys who was not only battling cancer herself, but who had lost her husband to cancer. Deaux took the family on as her own and helped take care of them until she was too sick to do so. She was a determined, ambitious woman who was also passionate, selfless and strong-willed. Deaux believed in giving people the sense of community in which all were supported and had a sense of belonging. She was the cherished mother of Sell, Allison (Alex) Del Rossi and the late Jeffrey, and the loving sister of Albert Dion, Rosie Guglielmo and the late JoAnne Soltes. Deaux is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. With the number of photos and birthday cards she saved over the years, Sell was surprised to learn that Deaux was more sentimental than she realized. Sell thought that she would never have kept things back that long, she said. Prior to her getting sick, Deaux was in a good place in her life. She was very active and had a ton of energy so if Sell could talk to her right now, she would tell her mom that this wasn’t her time, and this shouldn’t have happened.
“She used to say, especially when I was a teenager, ‘No one ever said life was fair,’” Sell said, “So when I get into this loop and when I think about her passing and how much energy she had before she got sick versus when she got sick, and the fact that she passed away when she was in a really good place in her life, if I could talk to her right now and tell her that this wasn’t her time and this shouldn’t have happened, she would say, ‘No one ever said life was fair.’”
Memorial donations may be made in Deaux’s name to the New Jersey Humane Society at www.newjerseyhumanesociety.org.
Longtime Mount Laurel resident Mary Deaux loved tending to her garden, sewing, and hosting and treating her family and guests to delicious meals.
Deaux’s famous Perfect Pot Pie recipe has been published in several local publications.
