The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Roksana Bithi Ali, of Somerset, passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 2 at her home. She was 68.
Roksana Bithi Ali was born on June 26, 1956 in a small hut in Khulna, Bangladesh, to parents, Raihan and Afrooja Ali. She was their second child. She was also the first deaf child in the family. Despite knowing no sign language at all and there was no education for the deaf, her father had hoped that he would be able to find some way to take care of her and communicate with her. Then Raihan and Afrooja welcomed their third child, Monwar Ali. Monwar is the second deaf child. Her parents felt overwhelmed at this point and Raihan moved to Hoboken to work and save up enough money to fly his Afrooja and children in America. Roksana was 4, going on to 5, at the time. She had no memories of her life in Khulna. She did share on more than one occasion that her first memory was in the airplane, on her way to America.
Living a new life of new possibilities, her parents enrolled her and her younger brother, Monwar, into Bruce Street School in Newark, where, unfortunately at the time, ASL had been banned and oralism had been enforced. She had been there until she was about 8 or 9 years old. At Bruce Street School’s assessment and advise that oralism did not benefit her, Raihan and Afrooja were advised to transfer Roksana to Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf. Soon after transferring, she flourished, especially with the primary use of American Sign Language. She stayed there until she graduated in 1975. In her teen years, her parents had relocated the Ali family to a house they bought in Somerset. During her time at Katznebach, she was not into sports or clubs. She was never the sporty type, but she loved hanging out with her friends and experimenting with fashion. She was also quite skilled with her sewing machine. She also loved taking pictures, whether it be of herself or of others she loved.
After graduating, she worked at a bank. She had gotten married in August of 1981. In 1984, she welcomed her first child and son, Altaf Drew. A year later, she had another child, a daughter named Nasreen Drew. After some number of years at the bank, she was laid off. After that, she was a full-time housewife and mother for about 13 or 14 years. After going through a divorce, she went back to work to support herself and two children. She got a casual job as a Postal Clerk for the United States Postal Service in Edison. After a few months of working hard, she has cemented her position and continued working in Edison until 2014. Due to downsizing and equipment disposal, she transferred to the Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in Kearny. She continued to work there until 2025. She had intended to retire this year before her unexpected death. Altogether, Roksana Bithi Ali had worked for the United States Postal Services for over 26 years. This May would have marked her 27th year
In her free time, she was a true couch potato. She loved watching pop culture on television. She loved movies, especially western movies. If asked to name her number one favorite TV show, she would have said “Days of Our Lives.” It was a television addiction that she had inherited from her mother, Afrooja, at the early age of 9. She also enjoyed watching it with her daughter, Nasreen, who had also been watching it until she was 7 or 8. Together, they would both discuss what had happened in the previous week’s episodes and what we each guessed would happen. She also loved cleaning. She really did enjoy that, especially the smell. She loved smelling her cleaning products before and after cleaning. And she absolutely loved food, especially if it had been cooked for her. She never did enjoy cooking, but you can lay down a beautifully homemade, well seasoned dish in front of her. She will absolutely devour it and made herself a second dish.
As a culturally Deaf person, she loved going to all sorts of Deaf events, such as Deaf Awareness Day at Six Flags or ASL/Deaf events so long as they didn’t conflict with her work schedule. She also loved chatting with her friends on her Sorenson Video Phone.
She was predeceased by her parents, Raihan and Afrooja Ali.
Surviving are her son and daughter-in-law, Altaf and Lauren Drew of Amherst, Virginia; daughter, Nasreen Drew of Somerset; brothers, Shawkat, Imtiaz and Irteza Ali, all of Somerset, and Monwar Ali of Tampa, Florida; sister, Yasmin Ali of Edison, and granddaughter, Arya Lilyanna Drew.
Visitation will be held from 3-7 p.m. March 7 at the Gleason Funeral Home, 1360 Hamilton Street, Somerset. Cremation to be held privately.
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