NYC family outraged after homicide death of matriarch, 95, in fight with 84-year-old fellow nursing home resident

She survived World War II in Italy, ovarian cancer and two bouts of COVID, but at age 95, it was a fight with another old woman at a Staten Island nursing home that ended Noemi Noto’s life.

And six months after she fell during the clash, hit her head on the floor and died days later, Noto’s death has been ruled a homicide, with investigators trying to determine if charges will be brought against the 84-year-old woman she sparred with.

“It’s horrible,” said Noto’s daughter, Mary Ann Kaufman. “She was a great lady, loved by all. She had a good life. It’s just sad how it ended.”

Noto got into a fight inside the Carmel Richmond Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Old Town about 1:55 p.m. April 9, cops said. She fell to the floor during the scuffle and hit her head.

Medics rushed her to Staten Island University North, where she died eight days later.

The city Medical Examiner’s office recently deemed her death a homicide since the injuries that killed her happened during the struggle, cops said.

Cops and the Richmond County District Attorney’s office continue to investigate the incident.

Her family wants answers.

“Like any loving family member, Mary Ann Kaufman entrusted her mother Noemi Noto to Carmel Richmond Nursing Home expecting her mother would be adequately and safely cared for, let alone be protected from neglect and abuse,” said Kaufman’s lawyer, Jesse Capell, who has filed a notice of complaint against the nursing home.

“Those rights are guaranteed under the New York State Public Health Law. To Ms. Kaufman’s horror, her mother was the tragic victim of a homicide that was both foreseeable and preventable. We demand accountability.”

Representatives of the nursing home did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Officials had no details about the fight that led to Noto’s death.

Kaufman said the nursing home horror brought an end to a rich life that was filled with love and adventure.

Noto was born in Rome, and came of age during World War II.

“She lived near the Roman Colosseum,” Kaufman said. “When she was 13 or 14, she used to hear the sirens and she would run to the Colosseum or to the basement to hide. There was no food, so they would have bread at night with water.”

The dark war cloud did have one silver lining. It was during the fighting that she met an American soldier stationed overseas.

Her brother was friends with the GI, Angelo Noto, and brought him to their home one night.

“My mother was there and she was afraid of the Americans,” said Kaufman.

When the American showed interest in the petite teenage girl, he was discouraged by her overprotective brother.

“He said, ‘No, you’re not meeting her,’” Kaufman, 74, said, recounting a family story told dozens of times over the decades. “But they hit it off.”

Angelo spoke no Italian and Noemi spoke no English, but the two fell in love and were married after the war ended in 1945.

“They both came back to America,” Kaufman said. “She was a war bride.”

Noto became a seamstress, a citizen, and a mother to two daughters.

The family settled first in Downtown Brooklyn, then Dyker Heights.

“She was really Americanized,” Kaufman said. “She spoke clear English. She learned on her own, she was really determined.”

The couple had a joke about their musical tastes, the daughter said.

“My father loved Italian music,” Kaufman said. “She said my father liked Italian music more than her. She’d say, ‘I want to hear American music’. They had a perfect marriage.”

When Kaufman’s father died in 2001, Noto moved to Staten Island, where she lived in two senior residences.

“Her whole life revolved around my father and her family,” Kaufman said. “Both Saturday and Sunday the whole family went to her home for dinner.”

She said Noto would cook lavish meals for her children, in-laws, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“It was a wonderful situation,” Kaufman said.

Noto is survived by four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren ranging in age from 2 to 20 years old.

“I’m very sad right now,” Kaufman said. “My mother was 4-foot-11. She was a tiny little Italian lady. She survived so much.”