Jeannette Berberi

Jeannette Berberi passed away on January 20, 2024. She leaves behind her loving children, Arlette Turkieh LeCourt (Claude), Aline Baum (Scott), Vicky Berberi-Doumar and Antoine Berberi (Susan); her loving siblings Maurice Koudsi (Agnes), Afife Kayaleh, Renee Beyrouti, John Koudsi (Kathy), Nadia Bright (Tony) and Charles Koudsi; 16 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren and many loving nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Elie Berberi, and her beloved son, Armand Berberi (Emma).

She was maman, teta, tante, auntie, and Jeannot.

Jeannette was born in the Spring of 1928 in Jaffa, Palestine, to Linda and Joseph Koudsi. She could talk about Palestine for hours, describing the smell of the orange groves that surrounded the city, and the trouble she and her sister would get into with the nuns at Notre Dame des Sions.

She was a strong woman. She adapted to life in Beirut after the Nakba, and in the United States years later.

Family was everything to her. She traveled the world visiting and caring for her family and spent hours every day on the phone with her brothers, sisters, and children. She loved deeply. Together with Elie, she built a beautiful family and created a home that was always bustling with life. She greeted everybody with the biggest hugs, leaving red lipstick kisses on generations of cheeks.

She was a hostess extraordinaire. Her parties lasted through the night, and she slept late into the morning. If it wasn’t a party keeping her up, it was a soap opera or game of solitaire or Radio Monte Carlo. She was the ultimate night owl.

She laughed all the time. It was infectious. She could tell jokes (yes, some dirty) and stories for hours, in English, French or Arabic. She loved to party, to drink, to dance, to live, and lived to shop. She told her kids “smile and life will smile back at you.”

She was a faithful Orthodox Christian who was one of the founders (and remained involved with for many years) La Maison des Vieillards Malades. She also volunteered with several charities in Lebanon and worked as a translator with UNRWA.

She would tell her Elie Ijri woo’ijrak. My foot with your foot. I will be with you wherever you go. And now they are together again.

We miss you terribly.

Viewing will take place at St. Michael Antiochian Orthodox Church, 16643 Vanowen Street, Van Nuys, California 91406 on Thursday February 8, at 6:30 pm, followed immediately by a Funeral Service at 7 pm. Graveside Trisagion will be held at Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park (St. Nicholas Gardens), 10621 Victory Blvd., No. Hollywood, California 91696 at 1 pm on Friday February 9, 2024. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Michael Antiochian Orthodox Church.