Obituary of Antonio C. Año, M.D.

Dr. Antonio Cruz Año passed away with family by his side on February 22. He had just celebrated his 94th birthday. Born in Rizal, Montalban, Philippines on January 23, 1931, he was the third of eight children born to Felicidad Cruz and Santiago Año. Tony grew up around his grandfather's farm and developed a love for plants and nature. He was 10 when the Japanese invaded the Philippines during World War II and soldiers moved into his family home. He shared memories of the horrors of war, including narrowly escaping being kidnapped by Japanese soldiers to carry supplies and walking many miles with his family to safety in Manila when the U.S. began bombing his town. There were bright spots such as the pride he felt that his father successfully hid an American missionary family from the Japanese, saving them from the prison camps, and the chocolate the American soldiers shared with him at the end of the war. Tony always had an adventurous, curious spirit and dreamed of seeing the world. While still a bachelor he took a solo trip spanning several months to Europe and the near East, from the pyramids of Cairo to Vienna, where he waited in line three nights in a row to attend the famous Opera. He graduated from the Medical School of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and traveled halfway around the world to Elmira, New York in 1957 to intern at Arnot-Ogden Memorial Hospital, buying his first winter coat. He later did his residency at Grasslands Hospital in Westchester where he met the love of his life, Sheila Ann Kirwan, a young nurse from Terryglass, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. After a brief stint back home in the Philippines, Tony and Sheila married in New York City in 1967. They later moved to Philadelphia where Tony began as a staff anesthesiologist at Roxborough Memorial Hospital. He also worked at Jeanes Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia but spent most of his long career happily at Wills Eye Hospital. Over the next 50 years, Tony and Sheila raised two daughters, made many lifelong friends, and continued to travel the world. Tony would say his favorite trip was to Cusco, Peru, but it really was Ireland for them both, where they were always warmly welcomed home by the Kirwan, Whelan, McEvoy and Broderick clans. The perfect pair, Sheila was a scratch baker, community volunteer and devoted mother/grandmother while Tony was an accomplished chef and master gardener who cultivated roses and boxwoods, often spotted wearing his old hospital scrubs in the garden. Always present for their family and friends, they showed their love and caring with sour cream coffee cake, chicken rice soup, Tony's many Filipino specialties, like leche flan and pancit, and bouquets of roses. Tony and Sheila celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in May of 2017, but Sheila passed away unexpectedly a month later and Tony's life was changed forever. Tony went home to the Philippines for a few months after her death where the Años and Cruzes gathered for a reunion in his honor. Tony moved to Cathedral Village in Roxborough in 2018 where he made new friends who were constant in his daily life. He is survived by his two daughters, Licia Año Marrone and Marcie Año Bohan, two sons-in-law, Matthew Marrone and Brian Bohan, 4 grandchildren, Henry, Griffin and Francesca Bohan and Andrew Marrone, his two younger brothers, Pablo and Leonardo and their families, countless nieces and nephews, and his brother and sister-in-law Gerard and Ramona Kirwan. His daughters are grateful for the loving care provided by Tony's caregivers, especially Liz, Esther, Kenyatta, Khalil, Jeffrey, Dionne and Melecia. The family is holding a private service. To honor Tony, please make a donation in his honor to The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health or St Jude's, plant a rose bush or your favorite plant, or travel someplace new.