Elizabeth Visconti Graziani

Elizabeth (Visconti) Graziani of East Boston on July 15, 2012. Beloved wife of the late Gennaro I. Graziani. Loving mother of Theresa Battista and her husband Russell of Lexington, Ann Graziani and her husband Robert Salvati of Quincy and Stephen Graziani of East Boston. Cherished grandmother of Gianna Celona, Michael and Marc Battista. Dear sister of Maria Bologna of Akron, OH, Gino Visconti of Italy, Vincenzo Visconti of Italy, Salvatore Visconti of Revere, Joseph Visconti of Canton, OH, Anthony Visconti of Stoughton, the late Ralph and Pasquale Visconti. Also survived by many loving nieces and nephews. Funeral from the Kirby-Rapino Memorial Home, 917 Bennington St. (Orient Heights) EAST BOSTON on Thursday at 9am followed by a Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated in Sacred Heart Church, corner of Brooks and Paris St., East Boston at 10am. The family will receive visitors on Wednesday from 4-8pm. Services will conclude with interment in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett.

Eulogy written by Elizabeth's family:

We welcome all of you here today as we celebrate our mother’s life. My mother would be very pleased and honored to see that all of you are here this morning .We would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about our mother, Elisabetta. We realize as we set about this task, that we see our mother in a different light than those of you who are relatives and lifelong friends.

Mamma, as we affectionately called her, was born in Calvizzano, Italy sometime during the end of December 1925, but for some reason her birth date was recorded as January 1st, 1926. She was the third eldest child of Anthony and Theresa Visconti’s eight children. Mamma took great pride at being the top student in her class at school. At the age of 14 her family moved to Naples, Italy shortly before the start of Word War II. After losing her father in a car accident, our mother, along with our grandmother, Theresa and our aunt, Maria helped the family to safety by taking them to bomb shelters to escape the bombs that were being dropped in the city of Naples.

After the war, Mamma’s daily life included ironing (2) two shirts a day for each of her seven brothers and cooking (6) six pounds of pasta daily for the entire family. She became the family matriarch in Italy when our grandmother set sail for the United States to be reunited with her war bride daughter, Maria who lived in Akron, Ohio.

Between the ages of 18 and 25 Mamma learned how to sew and eventually became a very talented seamstress and clothing designer for affluent Italian women. Mamma’s sewing teacher commented that our mother’s work reflected impeccable attention to detail.

At the age of 25 Mamma was a sophisticated and intelligent woman. With her brother, Gino and her best friend Rita, she saw her first opera, “Rigoletto” at the third largest opera house in the world at the time, the Royal Theater of San Carlo in Naples. It was then that Mamma became star struck with opera. She was able to name any opera and it’s composer whenever she listened to various arias being played on the radio.

She met our father, Gennaro Graziani on a Christmas Eve. Her brother, Vincenzo and our father were both military policemen (carabenieri) and were on leave when Vincenzo invited my father to Christmas dinner. Our father was immediately taken by our mother’s beauty and soon began courting her. She initially didn’t accept our father because he was four (4) years younger than she. However, our handsome red-headed father persisted and soon they fell in love. They were legally married in Italy in 1956 and were married by the church in the United States in 1958 after our father completed his career as a carabeniere. Theresa, their first daughter came along in 1959 followed by the birth of their second daughter, Ann in 1960. Their youngest child, Stephen, was born in 1967.

Our mother’s life revolved primarily around her family. She was happiest at home and seldom spent time outside of her home.

When Ann asked her when were the best times of her life, she quickly responded the time when she got married and had a family.

What we have shared with you today are just small examples of the many stories that described our mother’s remarkable love and devotion for her family.

As her time on this earth became short, we felt that she deserved our love, support and dignity to pass away in her home with all of us by her side. Her sense of dignity was never more challenged nor more evident as in the final weeks and days of her life.

Even with with her body riddled with cancer, she was able to maintain full control of her faculties, preserve her lucidity and maximize her ability to interact with family and friends that would come to visit her. Only during the last day of her life was she unresponsive to her physical surroundings.

Last Sunday, July 15th at approximately 11:58 am we witnessed our mother’s passing as we were in the vestibule of heaven surrounded by archangels that came to escort our mother to heaven. We cannot even begin to explain the sense of peace bestowed upon us during that time. Our cherished mother will live in our hearts and memories forever.

We thank you for joining us here today at our mother’s mass.

God bless you all,

Theresa, Anna and Stephen