By JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ
On a personal note, Carmen was an inspiration to me, as well as so many of you. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her and her parents, Ray and Joann, during her courageous fight with cancer.
During her long battle with cancer, Carmen Congelli inspired her hometown – Marlboro – small and tight-knit.
Congelli’s strength, bravery and grace, also moved opponents and coaches across Section 9. How could it not? For 2 ½ years, she fought through long, draining days filled with chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
However, now Brave Carmen is gone.
Congelli, who inspired Section 9 during her fight with rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare soft-tissue cancer — died at home at approximately 9 p.m. Saturday night. She was 17.
“I’m broken-hearted, but at the same time I’m a little relieved,” Congelli’s father, Ray, said. “As tough as she was, Carmen went through hell that last few years. But she went peacefully.”
Ray Congelli said Carmen was surrounded by friends and family at her bed when she passed away. Marlboro athletic director Jonnah O’Donnell, a close friend of the family and Carmen’s former softball coach, arrived to the home shortly after she passed away.
“I think Carmen was holding on to see her friends,” Ray Congelli said. “The last two days she was in bed the whole time. I think she knew it was time, but she didn’t give up. Carmen fought like a champion the whole way.”
Congelli was diagnosed on Sept. 18, 2008 with rhabdomyosarcoma, a fast growing, highly malignant tumor. Her first question when her parents, Ray and Joann, broke the news: “How much longer do I have to live?” Congelli and her family thought she had beat cancer back in November of 2009.
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