In loving memory of Helene Ann DiSantos - Obituary Baldwin Brothers

Obituary

Helene Ann DiSantos passed suddenly on April 25, 2023, in the ICU of AdventHealth Hospital in Daytona Beach, FL. She was born on October 4, 1938, to Richard and Ethel Howard of South Boston, MA. Helene was educated, lived and worked in the Boston area for the majority of her life, before moving to Ormond Beach in 2006.

Helene was well and widely known for her caring and kind demeanor and vast encyclopedic medical knowledge (acquired from a lifetime of learning). A graduate of Quincy City Hospital School of Nursing of 1959, she began her career in the Emergency Department of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston. Helene would go on to earn a BS in Nursing from Curry College, Milton, MA and a master’s degree in Primary Healthcare Nursing in 1984 from Simmons’s College Bridgewater, MA.

As a Nurse Practitioner she worked in various fields (psychiatric, critical care, geriatrics, home health care) in both Massachusetts and Florida, including Alliance Home Health Care and Vitas Hospice for several years towards the end of her long career. Helene was a member of the Volusia Flagler Advanced Practice Nursing Council.

In the 1980s, Helene was a Patient Care Co-Ordinator at the Brockton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She also held a part-time faculty position as a clinical instructor and lecturer in the Baccalaureate Nursing Program at Curry College. Helene was involved in staff development and nursing in-service education as a Nurse Practitioner at Taunton State Hospital.

Helene authored “Pituitary Regulation and Alterations in Function”, Chapter 32, Essential Concepts in Pathophysiology, Study Guide by Helen Carcio. Valued for her insights, Helene was one of the only nurses recruited by the Veteran’s Affairs HIV/AIDS Research Team during epidemic in the 1980s.

Helene enjoyed travel, reading, painting, crafts, yelling at the TV and her beloved cats.

Countless patients across the decades have raved about her diagnostic skills and have credited Helene with improving their health when previous courses of treatment were unsuccessful. Many patients and their families became lifelong friends.

Helene always opened her home on the holidays to ensure people had a place to go and good home-cooked food to eat.

Helene was predeceased by one son, Dennis L. DiSantos of Brockton, MA, and one grandchild who she raised, Devin Tamulevich of Ormond Beach, FL.

Helene is survived by two sons, Richard Dunin-Wilczynski of Bethel, ME and Steven M. DiSantos (Nan) of Ormond Beach, FL, one sister, Jeanne M. Dalton (William) of Mashpee, MA, and three grandchildren, Suria M. DiSantos of Ormond Beach, FL, and Richard and Elizabeth Dunin-Wilczynski, both of Rockland, MA. She is also survived by one great-granddaughter, Olivia Rae Tamulevich of Ormond Beach, FL, two nieces, Linda Dalton (Catherine) of Plymouth, MA, and Deborah (Christopher) McCoy-Brennan of East Sandwich, MA, two grandnephews, Shawn McCoy and Alexander Brennan of East Sandwich, MA, and many more relatives.

A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held Saturday, May 13, 2023, from 2:00pm – 4:00pm at Baldwin Brothers Ormond Beach Chapel, 1185 W. Granada Blvd. #11, Ormond Beach, FL 32174.

Helene is dearly loved by her family and friends, and her memory and love will live always in our hearts.

Any flowers send to Baldwin Brothers Ormond Beach by Friday, May 12, 2023 by 4:00pm.