Obituary of Joy George
Joy George, 64, passed away peacefully and surrounded by her loved ones on Friday, May 30, 2025. Among her many strong convictions—including, but not limited to, the belief that hot pink or leopard-printed anything was always an acceptable style choice—was the opinion that her best and closest friends always knew her affectionately as, “Cookie.”
Born in 1961 in the Peterstown section of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Cookie’s story of hope, love, and perseverance began in a cramped apartment above a drapery shop along busy Elizabeth Avenue, where she was raised by her mother, Tessie, and grandmother, Beatrice. Together under one roof, this trio of women spanning three generations forged an unbreakable bond that would go on to serve as the backbone for the rest of Cookie’s life. Young Cookie was a fixture behind the counter at her grandmother’s beloved Elizabethport restaurant, the Kozy Korner, and spent many childhood summers in her family’s native Greece and with relatives in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She was an active youth member of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church community in Newark.
Fulfilling a promise she had made with her mother to become the first in her family to attend and graduate from college, Cookie started working at 14 years old and put herself through school, earning a degree in child psychology from Rutgers University—Newark in 1982. This landmark achievement for the family came shortly before Cookie would go on to lose both her mother and grandmother in a span of three years. Following college, she spent more than four decades in professional life, working for the Pathmark supermarket chain and Weichert Realtors.
In 1986, Cookie married the love of her life, Atef George, of Cairo, Egypt, in a large ceremony at the Manor in West Orange. Kind of, sort of high school sweethearts, “Cookie and Atef” quickly became a symbolic tagline for what over-the-top, in-your-face love could look like. Unapologetically devoted to one another, the power couple settled into their first home on Sayre Street in Elizabeth, where they would welcome their first and only child, Andrew, into the world in 1989.
As a mother, Cookie’s love knew no bounds. She dedicated herself to making sure Andrew had every opportunity in life that she didn’t have, and it was a promise fully kept. She could be tough when she needed to be and preached respect and humility above all, but also did not pass up an opportunity to turn an achievement or birthday into an extravagant event with an elaborate, handmade cake that today, would’ve earned her a reality TV show of her own. Traditions from the old world and her own humble beginnings were honored with the respect and dignity they deserved, but Cookie also made sure that life was fun. It was always fun.
The family eventually left Elizabeth in 1994 for the open space of Washington, New Jersey, where Cookie had the opportunity to build her dream home with a view on Rymon Road. For the better of part of the two decades that followed, she turned her country home into the family’s hub, where she hosted countless holidays and parties and potentially introduced the good folk of Warren County to what a properly prepared lamb on a spit in the backyard looks like.
The only job Cookie was ever more qualified for than the role of mother was grandmother, and it was her stated dream to be the greatest, “yiayia” that the world, or at minimum the Tri-State Area, had ever seen. Despite a creeping illness hellbent on advancing, Cookie experienced the births of her first granddaughter, Tessa, aptly named after her own mother, in 2017, another granddaughter, Zoe, bearing her own name in Greek, in 2018, and her grandson, Theodore, in 2021. Despite having her time with her grandchildren cut cruelly short, her legacy endures in their smiles, mannerisms, memories, and inevitably, their bellies when her world-class makaronia me kima is what’s for dinner.
If a life is to be measured by its impact on other lives, Cookie’s brief, yet wondrous, time on Earth would be immeasurable. If you were in a jam or just wanted to vent, she was your first phone call. Needed a place to rest your head? Cookie opened her door and assumed your stay would be indefinite without question. And when life’s more serious side reared its ugly head, you got through it with Cookie by your side. So many different things to so many different people, Cookie did it all with her signature giant smile, a cup of coffee in her hand, and some mostly mild, colorfully bilingual profanity, on occasion.
If you didn’t have a sister, she was the sister you never had. And if you did have a sister, she was still the sister you never had. It would have likely served her well to go into the olive oil business given how many times Cookie was asked by her loved ones to baptize their kids. Even with more godchildren than she could physically count on her fingers, she loved them all immensely and accepted each request with great honor and pride.
Loving mother, wife, daughter, aunt, godmother, sister, cousin, and friend were all roles that she embodied and undoubtedly will be remembered by, but this Renaissance girl from Elizabeth Avenue was all that and so much more. Cookie was one-of-a-kind in a world that increasingly looks the same. She was the antidote to boring, the spark that illuminated others’ fires. Her memory will be eternal.
Visitation will be held on Monday, June 2, 2025 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Higgins Home For Funerals, 752 Mountain Blvd., Watchung, New Jersey. A funeral mass is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3, 2025, 10:00 a.m., at Sts. Nicholas, Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 80 Laurel Ave., Roseland, New Jersey. Interment will follow at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.
