They spent more than 40 years together. The fatal flooding took their lives
As he visited his childhood home for the first time without his parents, Zack DePiero took comfort in knowing one thing for certain about their sudden tragic death.
They ate their last meal — likely tomato pie and fish tacos — together at their favorite restaurant.
Enzo and Linda DePiero, who recently celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary, were driving home after dinner at a Titusville, N.J. diner known for its ice cream, fried chicken and tomato pies.
They were driving on Washington Crossing Road, headed to their Newtown Township home when a wall of rainwater from the overflowing banks of Houghs Creek came out of nowhere, surrounded them and kept rising quickly. Too quickly.
The couple were among nearly a dozen drivers caught in the flash flood waters on Saturday night. Ten people were pulled out of the angry waters. Two children remain missing as of Tuesday afternoon.
The DePieros were among the five people, so far, who perished that night, leaving their only child to grieve a catastrophic double loss he was still emotionally processing four days later.
“It’s a big ripoff. I’m trying to be thankful for the times I had, but there should be more times, too,” 40-year-old Zack DePiero said Tuesday as he sat at the kitchen table with his wife, Sabira, and neighbors who are like family.
His parents' home on Tall Oaks Road, an unpaved gravel laneway sheltered by thick woods, was the family's dream home born of his father’s imagination. His 78-year-old father, a retired a civil engineer for the New Jersey Department of Fish and Gaming, was its architect.
Enzo DePiero used drafting software to create the blueprint and helped the contractors transform what had been a small rancher into a two-story, 2,700-square-foot showplace surrounded by lush gardens with park benches, whimsical statues and wind chimes featuring insects, wildlife and funky cats.
Zack DePiero, then a young teen, was right beside his father during construction.
“We put these tiles down,” he said, pointing to the kitchen floor. “We put the ceiling up. We put the drywall in the house, the siding. He was a big do-it-yourselfer.”
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How a Honkytonk Woman brought the DePieros together
Enzo DePiero was born in the northern Italy town of Cordenons. Linda DePiero, 74, grew up in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia raised by her father and grandmother. The couple met in Margate at the Jersey shore, probably in a bar, Zack said.
The story goes that the song “Honkytonk Woman,” was playing when they met, Zack DePiero said. His parents were huge fans of The Rolling Stones, a love they passed onto their son, he said.
Linda DePiero worked as an administrative assistant for the vice president of the old Philadelphia Spectrum, under the legendary Lou Sheinfeld, the former VP of the Philadelphia Flyers, president of the Spectrum and the Philadelphia 76ers.
His mom still has a note from Sheinfeld about what a great job she was doing. She eventually started working for the 76ers and Flyers before she left to have Zack. Later, she returned to work for Bristol Myers Squibb, he said.
Zack DePiero described his parents as his best friends — a fun couple who were always thinking of other people.
“Sweet and salty. My mom was sweet. My dad was salty, but also sweet,” DePiero said. “He was kind of tough exterior, but he was a sweetheart inside. They really did care about people; they really, really did — their emotional well-being, their physical needs.”
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Neighbor calls DePiero a couple who were a step above the rest
His parents were super close with the neighbors on either side of them. They spent all the holidays together, most recently to celebrate the Fourth of July.
They hung out in the backyard, the grill filled with barbeque, drinking beer, making fun of each other, and screaming about politics, DePiero said.
On Tuesday morning, the day after county officials confirmed the DePieros were among the five confirmed dead in the floods, those neighbors stopped in to comfort Zack and Sabira.
“How you doing buddy?” Zack DePiero said, as he crouched to meet the face of a small boy with tears rimming his eyes.
“Hey, come here. Are you OK?”
“Yeah,” the boy said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I have a hug?” DePiero asked. “I love you very much, you know that.”
“Yeah.”
Another neighbor, Stacey Schnell, said Enzo DePiero was always at their house helping cut down trees and move items.
He didn’t just help them. He helped everyone on the street. When a squirrel got into another neighbor’s house, Enzo DePiero went over and got rid of it.
“If you had a problem, you called Enzo and he would take care of it,” she said.
Schnell described Linda DePiero as simply the most generous woman she has ever known.
“She gave me something maybe every day. She would say, I just got some herbs and I left them at your house. I just got some flowers, I left them at your house. I went to the bakery and got some rolls, I left them at your house.”
When Schnell’s mom recently passed away, she received many sympathy cards. But Linda DePiero made a donation to the Bucks County SPCA in her mother’s name because she knew Schnell is a big animal lover.
“She was always a step above everybody else,” Schnell said. “That was just her.”
Sabira DePiero said her mother-in-law was not one to miss even the smallest details.
She kept a separate calendar where she recorded the birthdays of everyone the couple knew, and everyone their son knew.
“She knows when to send cards, and she’d remind us, ‘Hey Zack your best friend’s birthday is coming up; don't forget to send a card,’" Sabira DePiero said, as she struggled to hold back tears. “We’re sending a card to these people, do you want us to sign it for you?”
She would send people cards for any reason, or none at all, Schnell said.
“She sent me a card for St. Patrick’s Day, who does that? She’d always send me a card for everything. Every holiday. Valentine’s Day card. She’d give me cards inside socks. The most thoughtful woman.”
Schnell believes that the couple likely were hurrying home to try and beat the rain when they were swept away and swallowed by the creek.
Enzo DePiero was among the three victims pulled from the creek on Saturday night. His beloved wife was found Sunday one mile south of Taylorsville Road.
“They just left five minutes too late.”
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Newtown couple lost in flash flood recalled as a step above everyone