Gaetana Canicchio Sampson

Born into an immigrant Italian family on September 26th, 1919, Gaetana spent her formative years crisscrossing the Atlantic between Canada and Italy, while her parents decided where they wanted to live. Despite growing up during tough times in a family of nine children, she never wanted for necessities of life, and these times imprinted her with a strong sense of family.

As the threat of war came to reality, she met a young English-speaking lad who recognized a gem when he saw one. Soon they were dating, with all of the challenges of that time, and eventually decided to join forces against the world. On June 3rd, 1944 they wed, and that cold day in June literally froze Gaetana's bouquet of lilies. That probably accounted for her love of roses later in life.

With the end of the war, along came the first born, Ann, followed by Lucy some seventeen months later. Given the realties of childbirth, it took Gaetana another four years to summon the courage to have the baby of the family, Peter. From then on, she practiced her philosophy of equality among the siblings. Candy items not divisible by three were discarded for the sake of equity. An so it went, keeping her brood on the straight and narrow as they grew from toddlers to teens, young adults to grownups with their own families.

Along the way she gave generously of her time as a volunteer serving the Boy Scouts and becoming active in a support role within her parish. Throughout her life she held family in high esteem and parlayed the family's financial capabilities into a strong, secure base in which her family could prosper.

On May 24th, 2005 Gaetana completed her life's work and passed away peacefully.