Cassandria Blake

<br />Cassandria Alvina Blake,&nbsp; (nee Vincent) Cassandria, known to her friends in Florida as Sandi, was born at Cape Island, Newfoundland, on September 22, 1909, the eldest daughter of Edwin Thomas Vincent and Amelia Beatrice Hunt. She passed peacefully away about 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning, April&nbsp; 19, 2010, at Cypress Creek Assisted Living Residence, Sun City Center, Florida, just three days short of 100 years and seven months. She was predeceased by her parents and her two husbands, Charles Reitz and Albert Blake, as well as four sisters and one brother, Jean Bishop, Randolph Vincent, Greta Andrews, Dorothy Bell, and Betty Shuman. Left to mourn her death and celebrate her life are many nieces, nephews and cousins throughout Canada and the United States, as well as many friends in Sun City Center, Florida, where she lived since 1965.<br />In 1928, shortly before her 19th birthday, Cassandria accompanied her father’s sister, Aunt Sophia, to Hoboken, New Jersey, where Sophia worked in the medical system and had arranged for her to go into nursing training that September at the Fairmont Hospital.&nbsp; After graduation as a nurse, she worked at the hospital and progressed to Operating Room Head Nurse. Subsequently, she worked in the office of Dr. Harold Franklyn as office manager / head nurse for 23 years. During this period, she became interested in music and singing, and took training in both. As a result, she met Charles Reitz, a professional violinist in the Jersey City orchestra; drawn together by their mutual interests, they fell in love and married in 1941.<br />In 1965, Cassandria and Charles moved from New Jersey to Florida, and settled at Sun City Center, where they both became very involved in music and singing and various volunteer organizations. Charles was by now 64 and looking forward to enjoying a Florida retirement, when he lost a battle with cancer in 1969. As a young widow, Cassandria worked at various jobs until, one day, she received a call to work in the office of Dr. Wentzell in a job similar to the one she had had in New Jersey with Dr. Franklyn. She continued in that job until, into her 70s, she retired at about 72. She then became even more involved in volunteering, especially with the Sun City Center Samaritan Services.<br />Meanwhile, after several years as a widow, she fell in love with a dashing retiree widower at Sun City Center named Albert Blake and they married about 1974. From October, 1977, to October, 1979, Al Blake served as the 5th volunteer Chief of the Sun City Center Emergency Squad. They had an enjoyable and active life together, both of them continuing their volunteering, until Al got struck down by heart failure in 1988. She used to say, I have sung in almost every choir in almost every church in Sun City Center.<br />Cassandria (Sandi Blake to her Florida friends) continued her very active life in the Sun City Center community, and lived independently in her home there until 2008, when she required assisted living, and Cypress Creek Assisted Living Residence became her home for the last year and a half of her life. She will be missed by her friends there, especially her personal aide, Lupita. Two of her special friends in Sun City Center who will really miss her are Doris (Healey) Ragland, a colleague working with Dr. Wentzell as well as with Samaritan Services, and Jane Behr, her next-door neighbor on Cherry Hills Court, who was always there to provide the rides to the store, the hairdresser and anywhere else she might need to go.<br />After immigrating to the United States, Cassandria had occasionally been able to return home to Newfoundland to visit her roots and her relatives. In 1989, she was there for a reunion at her home town of Cape Island, which had been re-settled in 1952. Her parents and family had moved to the capital city of St. John’s, and two of her sisters had followed her to the United States, Betty settling in Kentucky and Jean in Jacksonville, Florida.