Gertrude "Trudy" Mary Natelli

They met at Snyder High School in Jersey City at the age of 15. Trudy Brooks was a secretary for the vice president of Domino Sugar in New York City, Anthony Natelli working two jobs and taking classes at St. Peter’s College when they married on another June day in 1956. Nine years later, they shepherded their five children – Nancy, Tony Jr., Thomas, Mary, and six-month-old Michael – aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth I, and set off for three years in Italy. They had no fear when they were together. They were forever energized by a marriage built on faith, hard work, and endless generosity.

When Tony and Trudy returned to the United States in 1968, they made Potomac, Md., their home. They spent the next 36 years – until Tony’s death in 2004 – giving everything they had to their community, their children, their travels in Italy, and their American dream.

Trudy Natelli was indomitable and tireless, resourceful and gracefully intuitive, determined to ensure that her children were happier than she was growing up. She was especially inventive in the kitchen, whether cooking Friday dinners for a D.C. women’s shelter or choreographing the Sunday dinner for her family. Embedded early in the Keansburg, N.J. kitchen of her mother-in-law, Maria, a first-generation immigrant from Campagna, Trudy mastered cavatelli, eggplant parmigiana, and the nuances of Italian style.

She always made an impression with her kindness, her self-assurance, and her wit. Among those who found her unforgettable were Tuscan waiters, Nordstrom salesclerks, and jewelers on the Ponte Vecchio. Equally smitten were friends of her children and 15 grandchildren, who marveled that her kitchen was always open and a guest room available – often for months at a time – when they were in the neighborhood.

For the last 33 years of her life, that neighborhood was Avenel, a congregation of 900 homes that Potomac Investment Associates, Tony’s real-estate partnership at the time, developed around a Tournament Players Club in the late 1980s. Trudy and Tony passionately supported Catholic Charities and the archdiocese, Montgomery College, and other charities that offered families shelter and educational opportunities. Their passion for each other never flagged. They were inseparable. In her final summers at the beach house in North Carolina, Trudy was always on the ocean-side deck at dawn, searching the horizon.

Trudy Natelli was born in Jersey City on March 26, 1936, and 86 when we said our goodbyes. Her parents, Benjamin and Mary Brooks, and her brothers, Robert and Richard, preceded her in death. She lost her oldest son, Tony Jr., in 2011. She is survived by four of her children and their

spouses, Nancy Natelli Duin (Steve), Tom Natelli (Karen), Mary Natelli McCann (Tim) and Michael Natelli (Jessica); Tony Jr.’s widow, Chris; those 15 grandchildren; and 13 great grandchildren. She will continue to be celebrated on June 21 in a private ceremony at St. Gabriel Cemetery in Potomac, then laid to glorious rest – in this world, at least – beside Tony, her heart’s desire.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to The Anthony M. Natelli Foundation, c/o Natelli Communities, 506 Main Street, Gaithersburg MD 20878.