Nancy Cavallaro

After a long battle with high blood pressure that ultimately led to a devastating stroke, Nancy faced her final days with the same strength, courage, and grace that defined her entire life. Her passing leaves a quiet ache in the hearts of all who knew her, and most of all in the family she loved so completely.

Nancy was born on March 6, 1953, in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of the late Max and Lillian Greece. A beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, Nonni, aunt, and friend, she spent her early years in Hyde Park and Mattapan before moving to Quincy. It was there, in 1975, that she met Tony, the love of her life. Together, they built a life filled with family, lifelong friendships, community, laughter, travel, and, it must be said, an impressive amount of shopping.

In 1986, Nancy and Tony settled in Hanover, which became much more than their hometown. It became Nancy’s community, and in typical Nancy fashion, she threw herself into it.

Nancy worked full-time at New England Telephone and later at Gillette before gradually trading her career for life as a stay-at-home mom. She poured her time, energy, and heart into raising her children and creating the kind of home and childhood she wanted for them.

That instinct to care for people extended far beyond her own home. Nancy was, at her core, a giver. If something needed organizing, someone needed a meal, a family needed support, a fundraiser needed volunteers, or a friend simply needed another friend, Nancy showed up. Sometimes she showed up before anyone had actually asked.

For decades, Hanover benefited from that generosity. Nancy helped bring countless community traditions and events to life, including the Hanover Playground, ziti dinners, Breakfast with Santa, and many others. As a longtime member of the Hanover Woman’s Club Juniors, she found no shortage of opportunities to put her enthusiasm, generosity, and remarkable ability to get things done to good use.

Her life also reflected a wonderful blending of traditions. Nancy was raised in a Jewish household and married into a Catholic family. Over time, churches became every bit as familiar to her as synagogues, and perhaps eventually even more so. Nancy never seemed particularly interested in drawing hard lines between the two. To her, faith meant family, tradition, community, and another opportunity to help. And really, a good Jewish woman who taught CCD—what’s the big deal?

For Nancy, people mattered far more than labels. She didn’t have an enemy in the world and seemed capable of making a friend just about anywhere. Someone could begin the day as a stranger and end it as a friend, and before long, that friend might as well have been family. Over the years, she built a remarkable circle of friendships that stretched across the United States and all the way to Italy. Wherever she went, she somehow managed to come home knowing more people than when she left.

Travel was another great love of Nancy’s life. Family trips created countless memories, including visits to the Anchorage Inn in Ogunquit, Walt Disney World, and the Sea Crest in Falmouth. Her love of the beach and ocean only grew stronger when she and Tony bought their beach house in Green Harbor, which became the setting for so many family memories.

Along the way, Nancy also discovered Fort Myers, Florida. At the ripe age of 49, she proudly named herself one of the youngest snowbirds at Lexington Country Club. Twenty-four years later, she had made hundreds of friends along the way—at the pool, at the beach, and during Music Mondays. Southwest Florida—Fort Myers, Sanibel, Captiva, and Naples—became her “happy place,” filled with sunshine, music, laughter, and the many friends she had gathered into her life. She fell in love with it, and, as anyone who knew her understands, once Nancy decided she loved something, that was pretty much that. The rest is history.

As important as her community, friendships, and adventures were, nothing came before Nancy’s family. For more than fifty years, she and Tony walked through life side by side, and her love for him never wavered. She was the devoted wife of Anthony Frank Cavallaro and the loving mother of Joshua Wood and his wife, Courtney, of McKinney, Texas; Jason Cavallaro and his wife, Michelle, of Hanover, Massachusetts; Jaime Cavallaro and her fiancé, Alex, of Glen Allen, Virginia; and Jenna Cavallaro of Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Nancy loved being a mother, but becoming “Nonni” may have been the role she was destined for. She adored her seven grandchildren: Brady and Cheney Wood; Gianna, Alyssa, Vincent, and Joseph Cavallaro; and Olive Ruggieri. She spoiled them with affection, attention, happiness, and ice cream. They were truly the apple of her eye, and the love she poured into them will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

She was predeceased by her father, Max Greece; her mother, Lillian Greece; her brother, Michael Greece; and her sister, Arlene Duato.

The measure of Nancy’s life is found not only in the places she called home or the events she helped make possible. It is found in the extraordinary number of people who loved her—in friendships that survived decades and thousands of miles, in the community she helped shape, and in all of those stories that begin with the words, “Nancy once…”

Perhaps nothing demonstrated that more clearly than the tremendous outpouring of love surrounding Nancy and her family during her final days. People near and far called, visited, prayed, sent messages, shared memories, and reminded her family just how many lives Nancy had touched. After a lifetime spent showing up for everyone else, when Nancy needed them, they showed up for her. For her family, that kindness has been a comfort beyond words.

Throughout her life, she answered to many names, but for the seven people fortunate enough to call her Nonni, that one somehow said it all. Though her absence leaves a space that can never truly be filled, her family finds comfort in knowing how fully she lived and how deeply she was loved. She will be deeply missed, endlessly remembered, and forever loved.

Visiting hours will be held on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, from 3 to 7 PM at Sullivan Funeral Homes, 551 Washington Street (Route 53), Hanover. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 9 AM at Our Lady of the Angels Parish(St. Mary's), 392 Hanover Street (Route 139), Hanover. Burial will follow at Hanover Center Cemetery, 514 Hanover Street, Hanover. All who knew and loved Nancy are warmly welcome to join her family in celebrating her life.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Nancy Cavallaro may be made to the Hanover VNA Community Foundation, Inc. PO Box 45, Hanover, MA 02339. Any donations made on Nancy’s behalf will be specifically earmarked to support blood pressure control programming in the Town of Hanover.