Mom lived a busy life and had fun doing it. Mom was the oldest, born on 9 September 1925 in Castelfranco, Campigo, Veneto, Treviso in northern Italy to Antonio DeGrandis and Oneila Baggio. Mom had 6 other siblings Gina, Angelo (who passed away back in 2019 at the age of 90), Giovanna, Vito, Evelina, and Anna Maria (who sadly passed away at a young age of 10 back in 1953).
In 1950 Mom left Italy on her own, crossing the Atlantic by boat to Halifax. During her time on the ship, Mom arm wrestled the men on board proving her strength. She then crossed Canada by train to her final destination, Trail, BC. She did this, speaking no English, and Wow! She did this without Google maps.
Mom started her life doing house cleaning, waitressing, and cooking at the now-gone Kootenay Hotel restaurant. While working at the restaurant, Mom meets a regular dining customer named Reg who she would later go on to marry on 7 Sept 1953. A couple of years later they started a family, with myself, my brother Jerry, and two sisters Marian and Lina. The current house was now getting too small, so Mom and Dad took the challenge of constructing a new home together outside of Trail, in Rivervale. Mom demonstrated she was a great apprentice in all the different phases of construction. Mom had no problem carrying wood, and with her long arms could swing that hammer. Mom very much enjoyed gardening along with the annual competition and friendly discussions with her brother Angelo who himself was an avid competitive gardener. When Mom was not cooking, baking, house cleaning, canning vegetables and fruits she did numerous other activities such as bowling, bocce, Avon door to door sales, and was a member of the Ladies auxiliary club, to name a few. Mom enjoyed travel and vacation times, spending hours on the phone getting the best deal as computers didn’t exist back then. Mom enjoyed singing in the church choir even though her voice was in the baritone range. She wasn’t perfect. We all remember those long strong arms, Ouch! We remember being late for church every Sunday, we were embarrassed to be early. Dad just accepted it as normal life. If Mom had to pick us up after school, or an event, you can be guaranteed to be waiting. We kids all survived and knew she loved us all. We enjoyed talking about these and other moments, and she would laugh and say we exaggerate. She loved spending time with the grandchildren, with each having memories of doing so many things with her. We all remember her fruit trees, cantina, can’t forget the big freezer. and her endless variations of the ever-changing puppy dog bedtime story. Alexander one of my children who would stay the summer months with her once wrote in a book given to her. Life was good with Nonna. Nonna gave us 3 rules. Rule number one, Bedtime was at midnight. Rule number two, they had to pick raspberries. Those smart kids negotiated a deal with Nonna, that he and Christopher being allowed to build water dams and then channel the released water through the raspberry rows. She commented it was the best crop ever. Every night they got raspberries, sugar, and ice cream. No wonder you guys stayed up until midnight. The third rule was don’t overflow the laundry sink flooding the basement area. The kids broke this on a couple of occasions with small floods. However they were outdone by their Nona, she showed them how it’s really done, flooding half the basement. Nonna had so many wet rags on the clothesline it broke. Good job.
Each time any of us visited, and it was time to leave, Mom, at the very last moment would load our cars with so much garden and freezer food there was no room for us to sit. So many memories to tell you we could stay here for years.
As the years passed, Mom became focused on taking care of Dad at home, she did her best, as eventually, Dad passed away on 12 May 1993 at age 73. Mom stayed in Rivervale going back to tending her garden, she eventually moved to Port Coquitlam in 1997 wanting to spend more time closer to us and spoiling her 14 grandchildren. None of us will ever forget that move, so much stuff.
Mom spent the last 12 years at a care home living comfortably. Mom was always smiling whenever she had a visitor. She loved the cookies. If you asked her how old she is. Mom would reply you don’t know, you figure it out, and if you told her the age, she would give you a wide eye opened surprise look and say, no way, impossible. When she began having speech issues if you gave her your arm, or hand she would lock on with a power grip and wouldn’t let go. This was Mom’s way of communicating she was happy, loved you, and appreciative of spending time together, as Mom knew, there would be a day when this would no longer be possible. Mom is on the move again, to her next chapter in the journey of life. We love and will miss you Mom, thanks for the memories.
In lieu of flowers donations to the BC Heart & Stroke Foundation would be greatly appreciated.
Bon voyage, Ciao see you later.
From our Family to yours, Thank you.