Antonia Stella Craviotto

It is with heavy hearts that my sister Mary Jane and my brother Mark and I announce that our mother, Antonia Craviotto, has passed away at the age of 99. We were so blessed to be by her side at the last moment, just as she was with us at our first.

It is impossible to sum up 99 years in a few paragraphs, but I want to tell a little bit about the way our mom lived her life.

Mom was born Antonia Stella Morreale in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1923.She was the daughter of Giralomo Morreale and his wife Maria Alfeo, who immigrated to the US from Sicily and went on to raise seven children. Mom was very close to all her siblings and family was always the most important thing in her life.

Although dating was out of the question for proper Italian girls in the 30’s and 40’s, Mom did develop a crush on one of the sons of the Italian family across the street. She offered to let him park his car in her yard as he returned from work. He eventually fell I love with his little admirer and she married our father Mario Craviotto in 1944. I came along one year later followed by Mary Jane and Mark. Mom always called dad, “the love of my life.” She said that to him one last time when, at his side as always, he peacefully passed away.

When our dad decided that he wanted to move from Massachusetts to California, our every supportive mom agreed, even though it meant leaving her large, loving Italian family. As we have grown, we realize and appreciate what a tremendous sacrifice she made to support her husband and keep our family together. We’re sure she had many difficult times missing her extended family, but she never showed it. We were always on a tight budget, but we now realize that the few trips we had to go see her family must have been so precious to her.

We were all very fortunate to have lived our adult lives near our parents and our mom was very involved with us her grandchild Meredith, Matthew, Christopher and Marky. Later she shared boundless love with great grandchildren Ivan, Zachary, Owen and Samuel. She was an exceptional cook and every Wednesday was spaghetti night! Although mom had a career as secretary to the Vice Principal at Hiram Johnson High School. Her greatest joy was ever and always being a mom and a grandmother.

Losing mom has been so difficult. She was the one person who loved us more than anyone else in the world. But mom, in our case we won’t say goodbye; we’ll say thank you. Thank you for everything you have done, and everything you been and everything you have encouraged us to be. We will do our best to live a life that honors your values and carry your memory with us forever.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.nicoletticuljisherbergerfunerals.com for the Craviotto family.