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Obituary of Mrs. Giovannina DiFrancesco
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Giovannina Di Francesco (Orlandi), 29 March 1926 – 12 February 2023, age 96
We miss you immediately and immensely, and we marvel at the memories and mundane moments, so ordinary, that we cherish all the more as we make sense of our collective time with you. You were a person like all of us, living with desires and ideas and interests as complex and complicated as anyone, as simple and straightforward as anyone, some of which you curtailed and sacrificed so we could all become what we are today.
The lives you touched and sustained and made, the hopes you held for all of us big and small, the light you provided to everyone and everything that extended from your long life: it is all so beautiful, like you. That is how we will always remember you: beautiful, loving, caring, and wonderful. You were our mamma, our nonna, our bisnonna, our zia, our sister, and our friend. You were a life partner and wife, committed. You are always an intergenerational force connected to so many things. You were our collective home, and you housed us always with love. You started with humble habits and stared down so many unknowns in a hard farm life, in wartime turmoil, and over a transatlantic voyage that stretched across three continents and ended in a place so different than that village up high, Penna Sant’Andrea.
You held space for everyone, nourishing us with love and kindness and with food. To say that the lasagna will be missed is an understatement. We remember those soft touches with hardened hands, worked over many years, the way you pinched gnocchi, folded and kneaded dough, made pasta, did tomatoes. You reminded us of the seasonal flows of the world, and the food anchored us as a family connected in spite of things otherwise. This is the legacy you leave us, the lesson. What seems effortless never is, and to take these things for granted is a luxury we no longer have as we reflect on the things that remain. We miss all of it.
We know it was not always easy. We see with more clarity the challenges you faced, the losses you suffered, and the things you gave up, and yet they were all to our benefit because we are here, now, following the path you laid out in advance. We owe you so much, and we are at a loss, lost somewhat in thinking about how we do good on debts and bonds of love, how we honour our ancestors who leave this place before us.
We miss your wry smile, your mischievous grin, your funny jokes and comments as you swap your Italian and English with playful intent, smiling, happy under the sky and the sun, standing in and with love for all of us. We long for times past, regret missed opportunities and things left unsaid, and miss the warmth and love that was your life and the space around you. Were you ready to leave? Perhaps, though it is hard for us to know. Yet, as we mourn the many holes your departure leaves in our hearts, we revel in your life and the time we had with you because it made us all what we are. We will see you out there. Ti amo, per sempre.
2023
Death notice for the town of: SCARBOROUGH, Province: Ontario
death notice Giovannina
DiFrancesco 2023
obituaries notice Giovannina
DiFrancesco 2023
We offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Giovannina
DiFrancesco 2023 and hope that their memory may be a source of comfort during this difficult time. Your thoughts and kind words are greatly appreciated.
