MILLIS - Mary DellaCamera, often called “Nini” by her kids, has retired after more than 30 years in the daycare business. Her clients threw her a surprise retirement party in June. 

DellaCamera began her career in childcare at the young age of 16 when she started working at the Watertown Boys Club during her summers. Her love for children inspired her to get a college degree in early childhood education. After working for Kinder Care for a period of time, she took a bigger step and opened her own home daycare in Roslindale in 1987. After six years, she moved the daycare to Millis where it would remain in business for more than 30 years. 

Diane Conroy, a client at “Mary’s Daycare” in Millis, started bringing her son and daughter to the daycare in the 90s. She explained that in her years of working in Boston and being a busy mom, “Nini made her home my kid’s second home.” She said DellaCamera’s daycare was so special because of Nini’s ability to treat each child like her own; she provided a service like no other, a kind that every parent wants. Conroy said what she loved about dropping off her kids at daycare was “knowing that my kids were going to have a wonderful day, fed, laughed, played, and were loved while I worked every day. Being a single mom was tough enough and Mary’s Daycare was truly amazing.” 

When describing DellaCamera, Conroy said, “Nini is the most kind, nurturing, and caring person I know. She’d do anything for anyone.” Recently, Dianne was happy to see DellaCamera care for her granddaughter and said her family “came full circle.”

Alison Logano, another client of DellaCamera’s, has been bringing her son to the daycare since 2023. She admires DellaCamera’s positive and nurturing personality as well as well as the fact that her daycare is “smaller in size, which made for a great setting for my son to thrive and make friends.” 

A third client, Ashley Glynn, who had her two kids in daycare, said sending her kids to the daycare was “more like sending them to family” since DellaCamera treats her clients more like family, and each child is treated like her own. 

Reflecting on the past decades of working in childcare, DellaCamera said what she will miss the most is “the joy they brought to me on a daily basis.” Over the years, Mary was able to develop genuine and deep relationships with not only the children in her daycare, but the families as well. She said, “This is why I loved my daycare, parents were so trusting in me to bring their children, I treated all of them like they were my own’.”

As she enters a new chapter of retirement, DellaCamera said to her clients, “Thank you so much, my work was my everything.”