Grandma Dolly 1922 - 2013

Ellie's great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mom's mom passed away this week.
Here is her obituary:

Calvetti, Theresa

Theresa Calvetti, 90, died in Santa Barbara, California,
on February 6, 2013, after a brief illness. She was born on March 25, 1922, in
Coalton, Illinois.
She was the only child of Anton Nicolotti and Margaret Pissardo Nicolotti who
both emigrated from Italy
in the early 1900s.

Theresa lived in the house she was born in for the first
seventy-four years of her life. She graduated from Nokomis High School
in 1939 and married Ronald Calvetti on June 27, 1944, shortly before he shipped
out as an Army Master Sergeant to the European Front.

Theresa and Ronald moved to Santa Barbara in 1996. He preceded her in
death on November 22, 1996.

Theresa is survived by her daughter, Pamela Calvetti
VanBlaricum (Michael), her two granddaughters Ann Calvetti VanBlaricum Harrer
(Nicholas) and Susan Michelle VanBlaricum, and her great-granddaughter Ellen
Calvetti Harrer.

Services will be held at Stiehl-Dawson Funeral Home in Nokomis, Illinois.
Visitation is 5 to 7 pm on Sunday evening February 10 and the funeral is at
10:30 am on Monday, February 11.

Theresa’s family would like to thank Abundant Care,
Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, and the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara.

 In lieu of flowers, donations
(make checks payable to CALM Auxiliary) may be sent to the CALM Auxiliary, P.O. Box 30058, Santa
Barbara, CA 93130.

Grandma Dolly will be missed by me, Nick and Ellie. I was fortunate enough to get to grow up with her from trips to Illinois and playing at their house to her time in Santa Barbara when she and my grandpa would winter and then when the bought the house just down the street. Susie and I will always have memories and cherish the important lessons we learned from her from how to play badmington to silly card games. We will cherish the $20 bills she would hand us whenever we would see her. And nobody will be able to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies like she could. We will be sure to carry on the superstitious New Year's Day activities of eating red grapes and taking a stick to the first person we visited...it seemed to have worked for her! She loved Ellie more than anything and although she had promised me and Susie the moon, I'm pretty sure she really would have done anything to give it to Ellie. Yes, even though Nick isn't Italian he is "such a nice boy" and Ellie is "so beautiful". I feel so fortunate that Ellie was able to get to know her and I know she will have memories of her own: picking tangerines at Gma Dolly's house, playing with the dolls she would put out for Ellie, taking cookies from Gma Dolly even after mommy said no more cookies...This past Christmas, Grandma Dolly came down to Pasadena with my parents for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house. We were able to decorate cookies and open presents together. I know Ellie will have memories of this Christmas. There is so much more I will miss from Grandma Dolly.

I quickly went through some of the photo files on our computer and picked out some of the best photos of Grandma Dolly I could find. I hope you will enjoy.

Grandma in the middle, my mom on the right

1971

EOH 1972

My parents wedding in 1972, Grandma Dolly in blue

1981

1984

2003, Nick and my wedding

2003, rehearsal dinner with Mickey and great-grandma Kost (Nick's grandma)

2009 Ellie's first visit

Grandma Dolly felt it was VERY important Ellie got a baby doll for her first birthday. "Baby Sister" is now one of Ellie's most cherished possessions. Here, Ellie is showing my baby doll to Grandma Dolly. The two shared a bond over the love of Ellie's baby doll.

Grandma's 90th birthday

Cookie decorating, Christmas 2012



This video I took in 2010. Grandma always put me, Susie, and Ellie first. She always tried to keep up with us. She even tried to keep up wiht Ellie.

Thank you for everything Grandma Dolly. We will miss you and always remember the awesome memories!