Helen E. Almasy

With sad hearts, we announce that Helen Elizabeth Almasy passed away March 24, 2019 at the Gerstenburg  Hospice Care Center, West Palm Beach, Florida.  She had had a fall from which her already fragile body could not recover.  For the last four years, her physical condition had been deteriorating, and she often recalled St. Paul’s words in II Corinthians: “For we know that if the tent that is our early home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  For while in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” For this reason, Helen greatly appreciated the visits and the calls, the posts and messages and cards from her friends for they helped her, despite her groans, to celebrate her life when she needed it.

Helen was born in war-damaged Budapest, Hungary on May 25, 1943.  Once the Soviets occupied Hungary establishing a Communist regime, her parents—Laszlo and Helen Borsay—determined that they could not raise their four children in such a society.  They were able in 1947 to immigrate to southern Ontario, Canada where Helen grew to her teen years.  Then in 1956, now with six children, the Borsays immigrated to the United States and settled in Springdale, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. 

At the age of sixteen, Helen found her calling in the nursing field when she started to work as an aid in Pittsburgh Hospital.  She graduated from Springdale High in 1961, spent a year at the University of Pittsburgh, and then enrolled in the School of Nursing affiliated with St. Margaret’s Hospital in Lawrenceville, graduating in 1964.  Her first nursing assignment was at the WVU Hospital.  When her husband was pursuing graduate work at the University of Minnesota, Helen was affiliated with St Paul-Ramsey County Hospital, and her toughest work was in a burn unit.  Once settled in Morgantown, she worked at St Vincent Pallotti Hospital and Mon General Hospital. She earned her BA degree from WVU as well as a Masters in Education. When the new Mon General was built, Helen served as Nursing Orientation Director for the new facility.  She was employed at Mon General until her retirement in 2014.

She and a colleague, Sandy Friedman, organized the first Health Fair in the region.  She worked in Case Management, and her organizational and leadership skills served the hospital well as Helen led more than a few successful Joint Hospital Commission Accreditations.  She served as Director of Education, as Director of Nursing, and finally as Director of Quality.  She was a member of the WVU Alumni Association, the WVU Foundation’s Irvin Stewart Society, and the Suncrest United Methodist Church.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, a brother Leslie, another brother Peter who was killed in Vietnam in 1969, and brother-in-law A. Wahab Khair.  Those left to remember her goodness and her gifts and graces are her devoted husband of 51 years, Rudy; her loving daughter Sara and spouse Michael Kraus, and her sweet grandchildren Calvin and Joslyn, all of West Palm Beach.  There are also two bonus granddaughters, Emma and Amanda, as well as her God-daughter Noemi Borsay Hall of Morgantown, West Virginia.  Three of Helen’s siblings remain: Judy Khair of St. Augustine, Florida, Ben Borsay of Findlay, Ohio, and Dan Borsay of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, as well as several nieces and nephews for whom she had a special place in her heart.

Because of her long and devoted service to Monongalia General Hospital, memorial gifts in Helen’s name to the Angel Fund at the Mon General Foundation are appropriate: 1200 JD Anderson Dr, Morgantown, WV 26505.

A memorial gathering is expected in Morgantown in the summer. Cremation services were provided by Tillman Funeral Home of West Palm Beach.

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”