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The inseparable Neptune brothers died earlier this month within six days of each other, both due to coronavirus.
A memorial service honoring Asbury Park natives Dennis A. and James E. Traverso will be held once coronavirus passes. The attire? Comfy clothes. It's what the brothers would have wanted, family members said.
Jim and Dennis were inseparable growing up, and ended up settling a few blocks apart, family members told the Asbury Park Press.
Relatives think that James, who was six years younger, contracted the virus after insisting on staying by Dennis’ side during his final days.
Dennis 79, died at home on April 4 with his two daughters and brother at his side. He was a renowned historian and specialist in early antique glass. He also was an expert dealer in primitive collectibles.
James, 73, died six days later on April 10 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune. Nicknamed "Cricket,'' James was an expert model train enthusiast and a master car craftsman. He had one daughter, Traci Traverso, one grandson and two nieces.
Dennis is survived by two daughters; Denise Traverso and Margaret Bruemmer; six grand children and one great grandchild.
“They did everything together. Everything,” Denise Traverso told the Asbury Park Press. “It’s devastating."
Dennis worked at a junkyard and James in an auto-body shop. Denise Traverso, a hospice nurse, told app.com that her father visited many health care facilities and thought he contracted COVID-19 at one of them.
As Denise cleaned out her uncle’s home, she found a birthday card her father had given James last year. “Dear Jim, you are the very best brother anyone could have,” Dennis wrote in the card. “I love you Jim, my brother.”
There was no funeral. The brothers' remains were cremated.
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