A wife for one. A mother of one. A grandmother of two. A daughter, sister and aunt. Ella S. Miller of Newton, NJ, passed away on Nov. 15, 2025 at home. She was a remarkable 106 years old.
Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Sept. 30, 1919, Ella Ann Szecsody was the second of three daughters of Joseph and Josephine (nee Lejko) Szecsody. They were of the lost Windish nation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in an area which today is in Hungary and Slovenia. Joseph, born in 1881, emigrated to the United States at age 23 in 1905, while Josephine, born in 1894 came at age 19 in 1913. They were married and lived in Bethlehem’s large Windish community.
Ella grew up in a duplex next to St. Joseph’s Windish Catholic Church, going to Mass each day and being educated through eighth grade by nuns in its parochial school. She often played with friends, and went on vacations with her family to the beach in Wildwood, NJ. Her father was a tailor who made fine men’s clothing by hand and her mother and grandmother volunteered to cook for many church banquets. During the Great Depression they were more secure than many, with her father having income that kept a roof over their heads and her mother bartering clothes repair with farmers to get good food on their table.
After eighth grade, Ella successfully studied for two years to be a practical nurse. She cared for children of a family within walking distance of home and then in western Pennsylvania after they moved. Ella was then a live-in practical nurse for two families in New York City, returning on weekends to Bethlehem, followed by six years on the line in a sewing factory in Bethlehem, where her sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, also worked. Later, she moved to Elizabeth, NJ, working for many years at the phone company’s classified ads department, making and selling advertisements.
It was there that Ella found the love of her life, Charles Miller, a World War II Veteran. After meeting at bingo and a short courtship, they were married in Elizabeth in 1954 and their sole child, Penelope (Penny), was born in 1957. Their life centered around raising Penny, and they vacationed annually at the beach in Wildwood. Tragedy struck in 1965 when Charles suddenly passed away at home shortly after being injured at the Terry Candy Company factory, where he worked.
Ella successfully raised Penny alone as a widow in Elizabeth, working at a coffee shop at the Union County Courthouse, assisting its visually impaired owners. Ella and Penny lived together in an apartment until Penny married John Saeli in 1989, and then she joined them when they moved to Virginia in 1992. From the start, Ella loved and cared for her grandchildren, Kristina and Ashley, as they grew into successful adults. In 2024, Ella moved back to New Jersey with Penny and John as they relocated to Newton in retirement. She often went back in her last two years to her hometown in Bethlehem to enjoy the casino now at the old Bethlehem Steel Mill where many of her family had worked.
A family statement reads, “Ella was central to our small family, a devoted and loving mother and grandmother. She cared for us in many wonderful ways, making us better in being a part of our lives. We will miss her always.”
Ella is survived by her daughter Penelope and her husband John Saeli, Jr. of Newton, N.J., and her granddaughters, Kristina Saeli of Henrico, VA, and Ashley Koonce and her husband, Mason, of Spotswood, N.J. She was predeceased by her husband Charles by almost 60 years.
In lieu of flowers, in memory of Ella’s love of animals and especially her pets, please consider donating to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
