Maude Rose Palermo

Maude Rose (Matranga) Palermo went home on Thursday, September 4, 2014. Funeral Mass to be held at 11:00am, Tuesday, September 9, 2014 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, 6723 Reed Rd., Houston, TX 77087, with Visitation beginning at 10am. Interment will follow at Forest Lawn Cemetery, 8701 Almeda Genoa Road, Houston, TX 77075.

The third born of eleven children, she was preceded in death by her husband Joe, parents George and Annie (Paratore) Matranga, brothers Joseph, Philip and Robert, sisters Marie Repsdorph, Frances Mustachia. She is survived by brother Paul and wife Marcella, sisters Theresa Sagan, Margaret Apffel, brother Anthony and wife JoAnna, and sister Georgia Ann and Martin Muniz, and children "special" daughter Norma Jo Warr, Sam and wife Jan, John, Joey and wife Neve, Nina, Ray, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Many people, when remembering their parents, will say that they were the best mother or father in the world and of course, they are speaking figuratively. In our mother, we were given the foundation for a life that many people can only aspire to. Whether it was her empathy for the suffering of strangers, humility in knowing one's place, or unconditional support for any pursuit that brought value to our own lives or others. We learned the pleasure of simple things, like the way she would sing while doing chores or showing a sense of humor while mooning her lady friends wearing a terry-cloth bunny suit (guess you had to be there for that one). We learned to enjoy the quiet times together, like having coffee in the afternoon, or a bowl of ice cream at night (only after she made sure ours wasn't "sour"). As Maude's children, we can't say she was the best mother in the "entire" world, but she was the best mother we could hope and dream for, and be assured that the world was a better place while she was here.

Maude's children would ask that you look around at your loved ones and take time to tell them they're loved and that you're glad they're in your life, for time flies, and in the end even a long life is not long enough when spent surrounded by love. Among Maude's many friends we would like to acknowledge Otilia Gregory for the kindness and support she provided, especially in Maude's later years.

“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”

- Paul Bowles

(quote from The Sheltering Sky)