Obituary of John Anthony Ferreri

John Anthony Ferreri passed away peacefully on Monday January 13, 2025, at the East Northport VNS Hospice. He was surrounded by his family and friends.

John was born February 1, 1964.  He was the son of Vita and Nicholas Ferreri. He is survived by his two sisters, Denise Nostro and her husband Frank and Donna Wissman and her husband George, and was an uncle to 3 nieces: Dana Padgett, Desiree Hirschy, Erica Demick and 1 nephew Greg Wissman and Great Uncle to 11 of their children.

Very early in life, John was diagnosed with profound hearing loss/deafness. He started suffering with astigmatism in his eyes and at the age of 8, he was diagnosed with a very rare nerve degenerative disease (OcticoAudioNeuropathy) at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Throughout the years, John has experienced progressive decline with all his physical and neurological abilities – his sight and his ability to use his limbs. Both his arms and legs, feet and fingers began to atrophy. This caused him to lose his ability to utilize ASL (American Sign Language) as a way to communicate. Tactile sign language was used, as well as writing and spelling words on a hard surface. He was determined to be understood by sounding out the letters and words. Throughout the years of decline and his extreme limitations, John’s intelligence and spirit shown through. He craved an understanding of what was going on in the world and both his family and his close loving friends addressed his desires.

John also had a close-knit family of choice with Patrick Meehan, Heide Leuthner Decker, Joe Fresolo and Robert PJ Moon. They were an extremely significant part of John's life. These were the angels in John’s life who made him feel “normal” and gave him hope with their patience, understanding and selfless time spent with him. These were not ordinary friendships – they were extraordinary.

John truly lived life to the fullest through simple pleasures like gathering and communicating with friends and family, savoring good food (Chinese Cuisine and Meehan’s of Huntington were his favorites) and a lot of humor. He found humor in everything and made us all laugh along with him.

John’s disease was so rare and unique. Anyone that met him was automatically touched and drawn to him because of his gentle spirit and his ability to endure such limitations.  You could not help but love John. He was charismatic, strong, resilient and DEAF-iant!

John’s best friend Pat said, “John was dealt a bad hand in life, but thanks be to God, one of the cards that he was dealt was the card of LOVE - The most important card to get in your life. He was truly loved so much and will be missed. He was and always will be the BEST!

In lieu of flowers, a donation (via check) can be made to:

American Neurological Association

Dept. 2160

PO Box 4110

Woburn, Mass 01888