Obituary of Denise Gatling

Denise Gatling, of Amityville, New York, passed away peacefully on the morning of Sunday, March 29th. She was born in Queens, New York on October 4, 1954 to Deacon Emeritus James Gatling and the late Mother Murlie Gatling. Denise graduated from Amityville Memorial High School in 1972. She took pride in working as a food service pro-fessional at the Brunswick Hospital Center and was employed there for over thirty years. She also worked for a brief period of time at the Suffolk County Police Department as a data processor. Denise loved listening to music and could often be found with her head phones on, and head nodding to the beat. She had a host of friends who she communicated with on a daily basis via Facebook, which was her favorite pass time, along with Pokeno, mo-nopoly, candy crush, pet saga, shopping at the dollar store, soap operas to Tyler Perry's if Loving You was Wrong. In her day she always kept up with the latest dances and, she totally embraced the hip hop culture. Denise had no biological children, but mothering was a natural part of her DNA as she was the surrogate mother to her nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews too. Denise would affectionately say "I raised those kids" and she certainly did assist. Whether it was baby sitting, shopping, clothing or cooking, Denise was there to help. Denise will forever be remembered by her three God children, Shem McCoy, Jovanna Martin, and Sadaijah Tamir Andrews; three siblings, Luther Gatling (Kwan), Constance Brown-Riggs (Lawrence), and Pastor Marvin G. Gatling (Cathy, Connecticut); eight nieces and nephews, DeNae, Kimberly, Michael (Lakeisha, Texas), Marvin Jamar, Gar-ris, Jerod, Doreatha and Thomas; twelve great nieces and nephews, Sadaijah, Dion jr., Amiyah, Justin, Destiny, Sanaii, Maurice, Alana, Alyssa, Jaxson, Kyrie and Christian and a host of friends and family.