A shocking death, and then questions

Alyssa graduated from the Greenville Central School District in 1992 and worked as a special education teacher at PS/MS15, Institute of Environmental Learning in the Bronx for 19 years.

In early April, Alyssa wasn’t feeling well, Myers said.

“She had bad stomach pains,” Myers said. “She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t drink. She had a low-grade fever.”

When Alyssa contacted her doctor, she was told she didn’t have any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19 and she didn’t need to get tested, Myers said.

Alyssa reported feeling some improvement between April 1 and April 3, Myers said.

“She said to me, I have my sense of smell and taste back,” Myers said. “At that point in time we realized those were huge signs of COVID virus.”

Alyssa had high blood pressure and asthma, Myers said, and as the weekend progressed, her condition deteriorated.

“Saturday she took a turn for the worse and started having pain in her chest,” Myers said. “I talked to her not 20 minutes before she died. She kept saying, ‘I feel weird. I feel weird all over.’”

Alyssa lived with her 19-year-old daughter Emily, who called the rescue squad on April 5.

“They weren’t there very long,” Myers said. “They kept trying to get her to stay awake. Emily was saying, ‘Mom, keep breathing, keep breathing.’ My daughter said, ‘I can’t.’”

Originally, the family had been thrilled to hear that Alyssa did not have COVID symptoms and did not need to be tested, Myers said.

“My doctor called me two days after Alyssa’s death and said these bad, bad stomach pains are only in 10% of the COVID victims and that when they have these pains the virus is so much worse than for other people,” Myers said. “My doctor said if they had been called with those symptoms, they wouldn’t have sent her to be tested anyway. It’s definitely not something they knew of as being COVID-related.”

Myers and her family were shocked by Alyssa’s sudden death, she said.

“A week before she died went and got all this food for this woman for her to feed her family,” Myers said. “She went to the food bank and got lots and lots of food for this woman and delivered it to her. She was always taking care of someone.”

Alyssa also took special care with her students.

“She was always taking care of her students,” Myers said. “If they needed food, she would feed them. If people were out on street, she was going and buying food and giving it to them. She always had compassion for taking care of people and making sure there was equality in the world.”

Alyssa was also an animal lover and rescued three cats, Myers said.

But one of her biggest loves was her daughter, Myers said.

“As a single mom, she went to the University of Phoenix and completed her Masters in Special Ed.,” Myers said. “She poured her whole heart and soul into her daughter Emily.”

Alyssa’s cousin, John Dedie, of Medusa, agreed.

“Her daughter was her life,” he said. “Everything she did was for her daughter.”

Matthew Dedie, Alyssa’s cousin, who lives in Dallas, Texas, admired her strength as a mother.

“The biggest thing I looked up to her for was the mother she was,” he said. Alyssa also treated Matthew’s three sons as if they were her own.

“I have a special-needs son,” he said. “He used to talk to her on Messenger all the time. If he was having a bad night, he would message her at 3 a.m. and she would message him regardless of what she had going on.”

In addition to her mother and daughter, Alyssa is survived by her brother Tsao Pantilieris, his wife Hope, and their five-month-old daughter Evelyn. Alyssa is also survived by a stepsister, Kristine D’Amato.

“She was the glue in our family,” Myers said of Alyssa.

Alyssa went above and beyond for her family, John Dedie said.

“She was, from my perspective, someone that would do anything for anybody,” he said. “My wife and I wanted to take our kids down to New York City and she opened up her apartment to us, drove us all around the city showing us all the landmarks. It made her day to be able to help anybody or spend time with family.”

Although they were neighbors as children, once Matthew moved to Texas in 2008, he began taking annual trips to visit his family in New York.

“I took a trip this past winter down to New York City to spend time with her,” he said. “What made me laugh was, I’m a big imposing 6-foot-5 guy and she was short but she didn’t let anybody push her around. I was following her through the crowd. She was tough.”

Despite the miles between them, Alyssa and Matthew remained close throughout the years.

“To know her was to love her,” he said. “A lot of times I’d be having a bad day. I’d call her up and just talking to her she’d know what to say to make the day better and point me in the right direction. She was the type of person that if you saw a shirt at a store and you were telling her about it, she’d go out and get it. She wanted to see people happy.”

Alyssa was a spiritual person and taught Sunday school at Mamaroneck United Methodist Church.

“She had a strong faith and a strong spirituality,” Myers said. “She believed that God was guiding her and helping her through all of that. When kids lost their house to a fire, she went all over the place networking to find clothes and food for these people. If kids weren’t going to have Christmas presents, she was buying Christmas presents out of her own money so their parents would have something to give them.”

Alyssa will be remembered for her bright and compassionate personality.

“So many people described her as being a light in their lives,” Myers said.

John Dedie said he will cherish the time he had with his cousin.

“If everyone in the world was like her, there probably wouldn’t be very many problems in the world,” he said.

Because nonessential gatherings are prohibited due to the virus, the Pantilieris family will hold a memorial service for Alyssa at a later date, Myers said.