Rahway resident and nursing superstar

Aida St John, (neé Villani) of Rahway, NJ passed away on February 25th, 2025. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral Mass at St Elizabeth's Church, 220 E. Blancke Street, Linden on Saturday, March 1 at 11:00am. (please meet directly at the church by 10:50am) Visiting hours are Friday February 28, 4-7pm at Leonard Lee Funeral Home, 301 E. Blancke Street, Linden.

Aida may have left this world, but not without leaving a trail of sparkle, stories, and her beloved son Christopher who is still wondering how she managed it all.

Born at home on Wood Avenue in 1937, the youngest of Frank and Palma (neé Frangella) Villani's seven children, Aida lived her life between Linden, Roselle and Rahway with a sojourn of a few years in London, England in the early 1970s.

After graduating from Linden High School in 1955, Aida worked for the family business, the Villani Bus Company, before graduating from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland in 1960. Inspired by the care she saw her quadriplegic brother receiving, Aida took her operating room nursing skills to St Elizabeth's (now Trinitas) hospital in Elizabeth, Rahway (now Robert Wood Johnson University) Hospital and multiple voluntary missions to Ghana, Nigeria and Haiti between 2010-2016.

Aida's love for life was matched only by her love for her late husband, Manley Williams, a surgeon she met while working in Rahway, and for their son Christopher, who was born in 1971. Together, Aida and Manley made a couple that could heal patients, sail the seas in his sloop, and drink you under the table.

She drove everything from school buses to motorcycles, happily riding on the back of a Harley Davidson for Rolling Thunder while clad in a stars and stripes bikini top in her 70s. But Aida was most notable for the blue and grey Smart car that she drove up and down the eastern seaboard. With her pink hair and two-tone tiny car, she was a distinctive sight on New Jersey's roads.

When she wasn't nursing or driving, she was skiing, or feeding stray cats, or at the beach, or travelling the world, or running. Lots of running. Aida ran the New York City Marathon in 1981 and 1983 and continued running well into her 80s. The weight of her medal display at home was precariously balanced by the front door she almost never used, and her last trophy was for winning in her age category, the over 70s.

Her fierce spirit, love for adventure and practical jokes, and ability to pull off Santa outfits while at work will be missed by everyone who knew her. Her caring nature and her love for a good drink made her both the life of every party and the person you'd want by your side during an emergency. She was a force of nature who made lives brighter, livelier, and much more colorful.

Aida is survived by her sisters Joanna (Jay) Colucci and Carmella (Nina) Sadry and many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her sisters Clara Troiano and Rosalie Bosco and brothers Diodato, Carmine, Francesco and Frank Villani.

Rest in peace, you legendary lady.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to St Jude's Hospital and raise a glass in her honor.