Celebrant Pam Meily Vetter


	Celebrating Life Everyone Has A Story...

Written by Anthony Gruppuso for a loving mother...

My mother, Albina Guiseppina Semeraro, was born at home in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933 to Italian immigrant parents. She was the youngest of 7 children born to Carmela Guiseppina Ricciardi and Francesco Antonio Semeraro. She had five older brothers, Nunzie, Joey, Freddy, Tony and Albert, and one older sister Mary.

When she was three and a half years of age her father passed away. Her mother, who raised her and her siblings alone, was a huge part of her life until she passed away in 1988 at the age of 92. She was also preceded in death by her brother, Nunzie, and sister, Mary.

At the age of 16, her mother moved the family to what were then the suburbs of Richmond Hill Queens where she graduated from Richmond Hill High School with a Clerical Business Degree. During the 1950’s, she was an up and coming career woman working in N.Y.C. Quitting several high profile jobs with companies such as Sunshine Biscuits, Fedders, Westinghouse and General Electric because she was not being paid as much as the men who were in equal positions.

My mother also enjoyed traveling, a passion that continued throughout her life, and was a passenger on the Italian Transatlantic Luxury Liner, "The Andrea Doria", that sank off the coast of Connecticut in 1958. In 1991, she was contacted by a man who was writing a book about "The Andrea Doria" and wanted to know if she had any photos or anything memorable from her experience and of course she did. She had a box full. There were dining menus, itineraries, boarding passes, photos, etc.

During the 1950’s, she was also volunteering her time as a founding member of the Italian Charities, which was an organization that held dances to raised money to help families and relatives in Italy. The Dances and Organization became so popular with other Italian Americans of this generation that they eventually raised the funds to build their own Club to house there organization and dances. My mother was on the fundraising and building committee as well. Once the club was completed, Italians came from all over the five Burroughs of New York City to dance and get together there. By this time it was open almost every night of the week.

My mother met my father at one of these dances and several of my aunts and uncles met their spouses, and numerous friends of my parents did as well. The Italian Charities building still stands on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hill, New York. I was there once with my mother in the 1980’s and she was glad the building was still in use, it was now a senior citizens center. One of the old men joking told her she was too young to be in there and she jokingly replied it was her building and brought us to the lobby where there was a plaque on the wall that was dedicated to the founding members of the Italian charities whom without this building would not be possible and there was her name listed with several others.

My parents were married on October 25, 1959. My mother stopped working and became a house wife and mother shortly before I was born in February 1961. My brother Philip came along in June of 1963. My Father retired from the U. S. Postal Service in 1971 and in January of 1973 my parents moved the family to Lakeland, Florida.

Once my brother and I were in college, my mother decided to go back to work. She took what she thought was going to be a part-time job to keep busy, at Publix Corporation whose main offices are located in Lakeland. Boy was she wrong. With her past experience and that fact that she was fluent in Italian she quickly moved up the ladder. Turns out one of "Mr. George", George W. Jenkins, the founder of Publix Supermarkets daughters’ had married an Italian and had moved to Italy where her children were born and Italian was their first language. The grandkids were at the offices to visit their grandpa and over heard my mother who was new there talking to his grandchildren in Italian. He found out who she was talked to her and asked her to help him communicate with his grandkids while they were there. During this visit "Mr. George" learned who my mother was and her past working background and employment history. He then made her one of his assistants and soon she was responsible for offering contracts and hiring contractors for the chain's big growth expansion of stores in the 1980’s.

She was employed by Publix for the next ten years when in 1991 she was diagnosed with brain cancer and given six to nine months to live. Four days after this diagnoses, my dad who was already scheduled to have bypass surgery, underwent his surgery even though he had no desire to live without my mother. She insisted he had to do it so that my brother and I would at least have one parent around for the future.

The day after my dad’s surgery was the day they told us that my mother’s initial diagnosis had been changed. They said that if they were able to destroy the tumor with radiation and if she was in remission for five years they would consider her cancer free.

Upon hearing the news, I ran to my father’s hospital bed. Located on the other end of the hospital, he was still unconscious from the surgery and I yelled "Dad…dad… wake up, mom is going to be all right." He opened his eyes and said, "I know Anthony, God told me." He then went back to sleep. My father’s operation was supposedly a success. He passed away four days later in the hospital, a cause of death was never determined. If it is possible to make a deal with God, I am sure my father traded his life for hers, because he felt it was more important for us to have a mother then a father because he had lost his mother at a young age.

After recovering from her cancer, my mother did have a few good years. She was able to see her sons marry and all her grandchildren be born. Before her motor skills would start to fail and lock up her body, a direct result of the radiation and damage caused to the brain by the tumor and its removal. These last several years of her illness, my mother has been in a coma-like state, and has lovingly been cared for by a woman we affectionately call Miss Linda.

On April 5, 2008, at 4:00 a.m. my mother passed away in the arms of my brother Philip and Miss Linda, who stayed with her to the very end. I am sure she is now dancing with my father in Heaven. My mother, Albina Semeraro Gruppuso, was a woman who was truly loved and will be truly missed. She is survived by her son Anthony, his wife Doreena, their children Anthony, Alex and Arianna; her son Philip, and his daughters, Julia and Bailey.