Roberta Patricia Mendrinos

Roberta (“Berta,” “Bobbie”) Patricia Weir Mendrinos went home to be with the Lord on January 8, 2025, at the age of 91 after a brief illness. Roberta was born on December 5, 1933, in Plymouth, PA, to Anna Brozena Weir and Robert Weir. She was proud to be a coal miner's daughter. At age eight, she moved to Brooklyn, NY, where her father became the superintendent of the building where they resided.

She enjoyed going to plays, musicals, and traveling frequently, often taking family members with her. Roberta worked in NYC at a publishing firm, F.M. Dodge, and later at Remington Rand as a keypunch operator. It was during this time she met her best friend, Jackie. After moving to Connecticut, she worked briefly at Marine Midland Bank in Manhattan but soon decided her true calling was to care for her family.

She met the love of her life through Jackie’s family and moved to Madison, CT after they married in 1971. There, she lived happily for 49 years as the matriarch of her family, next door to her beloved friend Elizabeth Reed Wright. In her later years, she moved to North Carolina, where she enjoyed time surrounded by family and her cherished fur babies.

Roberta loved reading and often stayed up late into the night engrossed in books. She adored her family and relished visiting with loved ones, often joking about having a "ball-bearing tongue" because it revolved on both sides. She was deeply devoted to her faith and never missed the daily Mass on TV. Her bright eyes and loving smile lit up every room and will never be forgotten.

Preceded in death by:

Her loving husband, Issidoros Eleftherios Mendrinos; her parents, Anna Brozena Weir and Robert Weir; her sisters, Anna Durbin and Margaret Weir; her brother-in-law, Ronald Durbin Sr.; her nieces, Jennie Weider and Anna Fox, whom she thought of as her children; her great-niece, Jessica Enright; and her grand fur baby, Osi Chavous.

Survived by:

Her loving daughters, Victoria Elizabeth Mendrinos of Newport, RI, and Maria Ann Mendrinos Chavous and husband Benjamin Alan Chavous of Westfield, NC; her best friends, Jackie Syers of Surprise, AZ and Patricia Gallo of Port Chester, NY; her Godchildren, Christine Dawson and husband Wayne of Surprise, AZ, and Ann Marie Wazenski Marchetti of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL; her cousin, Agnes Wazenski of Annapolis, MD; her nieces and nephews, Ronald Durbin Jr. and wife Amy of Port Saint Lucie, FL, Robert Durbin and wife Susan of Ocoee, FL, Richard Fox of Bardonia, NY, John Weider of Cromwell, CT, Michael Syers of Provincetown, MA, Douglas Syers and wife Vita of Hoboken, NJ, Billy Koutrokois pf Islip Terrace, NY, Valerie Keingstein and husband Corey of Brooklyn, NY, and Austin Chavous of Westfield, NC.

She is also survived by her grandnieces and grandnephews: Deanna LaSalle and husband Francisco of Brooklyn, NY; Ronald Durbin and wife Leslie; Jeremy Durbin of New Jersey; Michele Matheson and husband Scott of Tampa, FL; Kristin Pope McCarthy and husband Sean of Ocoee, FL; Ashley Durbin and husband Richard McCarthy of Ocoee, FL; Meredith Hartigan and husband Tom of River Vale, NJ; Patricia Slyman and husband John of Mansfield, CT; Margaret O’Brien and husband Matt of Abington, MA; and great-grandnieces and nephews, Nicole LaSalle, Anthony LaSalle, Tristan Durbin, Hayden Durbin, and Autumn Durbin, Peyton McCarthy, Annalisa Hartigan, Gunner Slyman, and Gage Slyman.

Arrangements:

Visiting hours will be held at Swan Funeral Home in Madison, CT, on January 15, 2025, from 4–7 p.m. The funeral service will take place at St. Margaret's Church in Madison, CT, on January 16, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. You can join livestream https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/a25018686715680 , followed by burial at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, CT.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Roberta's honor to Catholic Ministries, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, or Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Roberta has left a hole in our hearts that can never be filled. We take solace in knowing she is now reunited with her husband, Issidoros, as she was never the same without him. We give thanks to the Lord for the time we were blessed to have with Roberta and entrust her to His eternal peace and happiness.