Jenny, During this holiday season we say our prayers for you to tell you that we miss you so much and are so sorry for what has happened to you.  We remember each and every day your beautiful smile, and great sense of humor and ability to make others laugh....we all miss that, and there is much emptiness now, but we struggle to go on....some day we will all be together again.

Much love during this holiday season,

all your family and friends

This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Jenny NACINOVIC, who was born in New York City on July 09, 1970 to the parents of Amalia and Silvio Nacinovic. Jenny has one sister Silvana. Jenny passed away on August 27, 2005.

Jenny was born and raised in New York City and attended Most Precious Blood Roman Catholic Grammar School in Astoria, NY. There she was baptised, received Holy Communion and Confirmation. Upon graduation she attended St. Johns Prep and began her teenage years.

As a child growing up I remember her long dark hair that my mother would always braid into two pig tails for her. It took an hour just to brush her hair!! It was so long, but she never wanted us to cut it. She looked like a little chubby koala bear that you wanted to squeeze all the time. My friends always wanted to play with her, and squeeze her cheeks. Jenny was very mischievous child, and we"d have to look around every turn as she was too fast for any of us. I remember when she was only four, she fell, and had to get a few stitches over her eye. It killed me to hear her crying in the doctors office. I was angry at myself that I wasn't able to catch her fall. After that incident, I vowed to watch over her and be her guardian angel, after all, she was my only sibling. Being the baby sister, my family and friends were constantly spoiling her. Being 10 years her senior, she always sat around while my friends came over and picked up all our habits, good and bad!!! She loved watching my friends and I dance and was angry she couldn't go out to the clubs with us, but she was too young!! I promised her that she could use my disco albums and I'd teach her to dance. I would teach her all the latest dance moves......she was my dance partner, and I was her teacher. She was always borrowing my albums and tapes and sang along to every song. Music became her passion growing up. Jenny always knew the lyrics to every song played on the radio. Because of her love for music, Jenny wanted us to buy her a piano and began lessons and made music her career in life.

She had a lust for knowledge and a desire to persue many avenues of music which lead her throughout New York, and auditioning for the Broadway Show "Rent". Jenny wanted to become a "diva". Jenny set out to achieve every goal, and had accomplished so much. She had just completed her Masters Degree from Hunter College in New York City. Jenny taught music theory to her many students at St. Michaels Academy in New York City where she was Choir Director, Music Teacher and Talent Show Coordinator. At P.S. 122 in Astoria where Jenny grew up she was Choral/Instrument and General Music Teacher. She was a real New Yorker. On August 3rd of this year she successfully completed the requirements for State Certification in Educational Administration at the College of St. Rose. She loved her students and colleagues and had so much to live for, so much left to do. She loved playing piano and coordinating music events and concerts for her students. She wrote many of her own lyrics and music.

Although Jenny was a health fanatic, she started to get ill around November. Doctors diagnosed her with MCTD which is in the Lupus/Scleroderma family of diseases. Jenny was always an artist and motivator, a strong, bold and brave individual, yet couldn't fight this battle with MCTD. Jenny was taken away from us suddenly due to pulmonary hypertension caused by this horrible disease.

The music has stopped for me as Jenny was my only baby sister. Although we had our disagreements growing up, we still loved one another. There is a large void in my life that not even God can fill right now. I was able to tell her I loved her and was glad all her friends and family were by her side throughout her illness. I will never forget her and will honor her strength the days of my life. Jenny, please be our guardian angel and watch over us from above........love your sister Silvana








What Did Jenny Have?

Jenny had what is called Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder. Only three other words Jenny said to me could ever mean more to me than these four, and just like I will never forget those, I will never forget these (also called MCTD).

If you've never heard of it you're not alone. We hadn't either, and when we did it was coupled with other things that sounded more unfamiliar than the next. Its nature is truly insidious. It has been called by some the master of disguises, for it appears with a plethora of symptoms which appear unrelated, but are actually a road map to the same thing: an immune system gone awry.

The symptoms Jenny exhibited were typical of MCTD. They each came in succession but not at the same time, thereby aiding in her misdiagnosis. Their timing was indeed impeccable, and it misled everyone including her doctors.

Last year the American College of Rheumatoid Arthritis sent out a press release (presentation #1057, or http://www.rheumatology.org/press/2004/wigley_pah.asp) that indicated that most doctors don't see what Jenny had until it's too late. Too late meaning FATAL.

Jenny's condition happens more to woman than it does to men. Its exact cause is not known. It is a close relative of Lupus, another autoimmune disorder similiar to MCTD in that the body makes too many antibodies and begins to attack itself.

I ask that you take some time to read the following from the Association for Autoimmune Disorders for a better understanding. They are a non profit group which promotes national awareness to view all these related diseases (about 100 of them) as one thing: auto-immune disorders, and not just a separate disorders. In this way, those afflicted may be better diagnosed to save their lives, and proper funding may be allocated to this one cause.

They say timing is everything, and I really feel we were unfortunate this time, for perhaps if more were known about auto-immune diseases, we might still have our beautiful Diva with us.

Here is a link to there Mission Statement and website. We ask that you read it through and support their cause. They are fighting to help those who are afflicted like Jenny and prevent its deadly demise.

Thank you all for your love and support


Art and the Nacinovic Family

http://www.aarda.org/about_aarda/aarda_mission.php

http://www.aarda.org