Fernanda Graziosi Douglas

Nanda was born in Castelnovo ne' Monti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, on December 15, 1925, to Emma Luisa Falchetti and Flavio Graziosi. Her parents, brother, Enrico, and sister, Alba Bacon, preceded her in death.

Nanda grew up in Florence, Italy. As a young woman, she met Walter Douglas, a GI, at an Englishwoman’s house, where she was learning English. During the war, she moved to Rome to work for the American Red Cross Officer’s Club. She was encouraged to apply for college in the United States, and she was accepted, with full scholarship, to both Brown University and the University of St. Scholastica (Duluth, Minnesota). She chose St. Scholastica because it was Catholic and near friends. She was the only foreign student at this small women’s university, and she graduated in languages with high honors.

After college, she moved to New York and married Walter. They moved between the East Coast and the West Coast several times, finally settling in Grand Terrace in 1965. During this time, they had John, Paul, Christine, and Jean (between 1954 and 1958) and then Maria (in 1967).

Nanda taught conversational Italian at San Bernardino Valley College in the 1970s. She

returned to school and received a master’s in comparative literature from UC Riverside. After this, she was a Spanish literacy teacher in the HILT program at Belvedere Elementary in Highland for almost 30 years.

Nanda loved to travel with her family, and she loved being home to tend her basil and her fig and persimmon trees. She always opened her house to family and friends and would cook traditional Italian dinners for her students. Each Christmas, everyone looked forward to, and waited impatiently for, her Scottish shortbread cookies. She was an avid reader: she read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy many times over, as well as the Harry Potter series. She was also, in her heart, a Trekkie.

She was an active member of Christ the Redeemer church in Grand Terrace, where she sang in the choir and served on the Environmental Committee. She was a diehard progressive Democrat and never missed a vote.

In her last few years, Nanda was cared for by Maria, Joe, Luisa, and Mario, who lived with her for 15 years. Her daughter-in-law, Janie, and her grandchildren, Lisa, Walter, and Clara also provided ongoing care and companionship throughout the years.

Nanda is survived by her five children and by fourteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She took care of us all with extraordinary depths of unconditional love, patience, gentleness, and humor (even though we had to explain jokes to her). We all miss her terribly.

A mass to celebrate Fernanda’s life will be held on Thursday, December 22, at 11 am at Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church in Grand Terrace. A reception will follow at Nanda’s house.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Walter and Fernanda Douglas Memorial Scholarship, c/o San Bernardino Valley College Foundation (http://www.sbvcfoundation.org/).