April came in like a lion for Ken Hayward, longtime proprietor of popular Haywards Deli and Market in the heart Sloatsburg on Rt. 17. One of his favorite employees, Marie P. Borrillo, 61, had suffered a heart attack over the last weekend in March and was at Good Samaritan Hospital. Then late Monday afternoon on April 2, Hayward learned that Marie, who opened the store mornings and often acted as his right hand, had died. Hayward spent the rest of the day calling people to let them know the news.

“At five o’clock Monday Marie passed,” said Hayward, unsettled by the sudden circumstances. “I wanted to let the regular customers know, the vendors. So, I was on the phone for quite a while.” Borrillo had worked at Haywards even before the deli was Haywards — nearly 15 years in all — and was known for her generous acts of kindness to friends and strangers alike.

That Monday evening, things went from bad to worse at the Hayward household.

“Around 8 p.m. my son was coming back from school at Rockland Community College and was in a head-on collision on Route 202,” said Hayward, as his son Dylan, known locally as Whitey, limped by in the back office at the deli. “As you can see, he’s walking around — he’s fine. But if you look at the car, you’d think — fatality.” Hayward said the two passengers in the other car were also uninjured.

“It was in the exact same spot as my friend’s son died a couple of years ago,” said Hayward, referring to Vincent Crotty, 18, and Christopher Konkowski, 17, who both died on Route 202 at the end of March 2010. “It was in the exact same spot. My son played ball with them. Rumors were going around. People mix things up. So, I called them up and said, ‘I want to let you know that it was Whitey and that he’s okay’. It was deja vu for them, with the fire engines and the ambulances.”

Hayward said he felt like Marie Borrillo did one last act of kindness for him and the store before she left.

“In my mind, Marie brought a lot of chips with her to the table,” he said. “She cashed one in and that’s why my son’s alive.”

Marie worked mornings at Haywards, driving the curves of 17A rain or shine from Warwick, even during snow storms, most days before it was even light. Pinned up around the deli are Halloween pictures of Hayward employees and family. Fun photos that show staff celebrating the holiday with customers. Hayward said Halloween was Marie’s favorite holiday to celebrate. Many Hayward regular morning customers and vendors had fond remembrances of Borrillo, from her feeding the cats out back of the store daily to a favorite greeting.

Borilla’s wake and funeral service took place in Warwick, where she lived, on Friday, April 6, and where she served as the President of the Women’s Auxiliary of the American Legion and worked in the cafeteria at St. Anthony’s Community Hospital.

“She was the type of person who was a mother to everyone,” said longtime Hayward vendor Kim Repola. “I’ve known Marie since she started working up in Warwick. I remember her telling me that her mother was the same way, that her mother cared about so many people.”

Repola said Borrillo wanted to take care of her friends and recalled a particular incident when she herself was recovering from a lingering illness. “She didn’t have a lot of money,” said Repola, “I know she didn’t. Yet she shoved $50 in my pocket — I know she didn’t have fifty dollars to spare. And she barked at me, ‘don’t you dare give that back.'”

Repola called Borrilla a loving bulldog, all bluster but gentle and kind. Repola was shaken by Borrillo’s death and said she would miss her.

“She was a tough woman,” Ken Hayward said quietly, calling Borrillo part of the family. He described how Marie would open the store before he got in and leave him notes everywhere about things that needed done. “I’m a creature of habit,” said Hayward. “I like to come in, have my coffee, take a moment.” Hayward said Marie would call out to him first thing — “Ken, you see my notes?’ Marie, I’d say, let me have my coffee and then I will read your novels.”

“As tough as Monday was,” continued Hayward softly, “I didn’t realize until I walked in yesterday, and it felt worse. I told her sister, for someone who lived in Warwick, Marie’s one of the best-known people in Sloatsburg.”

Photo Credit: Photo of Marie Borrillo in Halloween costume, 2003, provided by Ken Hayward.

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