Jersey City Native, 89, Writes Book Of Love Poems For Late Wife

SECAUCUS, NJ — Men can be moved by love: An Indian prince built the Taj Mahal for his adored wife. Prince Harry quit the British monarchy.

And Harry Scrudato of Secaucus wrote a book of poems.

Scrudato wrote "Love Poems from the Heart" for his late wife, Beverly Ann Scrudato, who passed away in June 2019 after a short battle with an aggressive form of skin cancer.

They were married for 59 years and Scrudato, who lives on Centre Avenue, said he was immensely overcome with depression when she died. Like so many Secaucus locals, both he and she were both raised in Jersey City. He was 22 years old, freshly out of the U.S. Army, and she caught his eye as a 16-year-old teen girl walking through Hamilton Park downtown. They started dating and married several years later. The couple bought a home in Secaucus, where they raised their two daughters. She died in the home, and he still lives there today.

Doctors diagnosed Beverly with skin cancer about a year prior to her death. Towards the end she was very weak and tired all the time.

"They told her she had 10 days left. She died on the ninth day, right there on our couch," he said, pointing to his living room, his eyes filled with tears.

After her death:

"It was a very dark period for me. Even my own daughters do not know how much I struggled, how hard it was. I hid it from them. I felt like I would die of a broken heart. I told my daughters, do not cry for me when I'm dead because I will be happy I'm at rest with your mom."

Scrudato saw a medical doctor, who gave him pills for depression, which he said worked.

At a complete loss for what to do, he also turned to writing to express his grief. Although he is 89 years old, Scrudato is savvy with a computer and he hooked up the voice-to-text on his home computer. What he produced in the six months after her death is "Love Poems from the Heart," a 107-page book of love poems.

On a whim, he published a copy himself and sent it to some New York City publishers. Austin Macauley Publishers on 33rd Street wrote back that they would publish the book; it was just published this spring. You can buy it on Amazon: https://www.barnesandnoble.com... and copies should soon be available in the Secaucus Public Library.

Scrudato's poems are mostly about love. But he also writes about life in general, aging and finding happiness and meaning in life as human beings age through the years.

"All I do is tell the truth. And if you tell the truth, the words are correct," he said. "Family — having a family and taking care of your family — is the meaning of life and how to be a good person."

"She made me feel like I was the prince and she had met her Prince Charming," he said of his wife. "She didn't care about her looks. She didn't wear make-up or jewelry. She always said her children were her jewels. I had to ask her to wear a wedding ring so men would know she was married. My wife also did not speak a lot; she was not a big talker — she was quiet, she'd stay in the background. At family gatherings, everyone would be talking and she was always in the kitchen, preparing food or helping her daughters. She just wanted to help out."

He also spoke about what love is.

"There are many types of love: We had the love that you have in the beginning. The infatuation, the intimacy, the desire for your wife. But true love happens when you struggle through life and you tolerate each other. The love becomes stronger and stronger as the years go by. At the end of your life, I can truly say there is no stronger love or joy than what you feel for your married partner. You know everything about that other person: I knew everything about her body, I knew everything in her head; I knew what she was thinking and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it."