Antonio Guiseppe Tranchida

A Note from Mrs. T. Dear Family and friends, I felt compelled to share some thoughts of the life of my husband, Mr. Tony T.. He was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 13, 1936. His father died when he was 15. His sister, Nina, was seven years old then. Tony had thoughts of entering the seminary in his teen years, but his mother said, "No." as he was now the man of the house and had to take care of his mother and sister. Not only was he a brother, but also a father to Nina. His father and uncle owned a family grocery store and Tony was expected to take on his father's responsibilities as well as go to school. He graduated from Servite High School in Detroit in 1954. I met Tony in 1960. It just so happened that I was saying a novena to St. Anthony at the time. And, lo and behold, along came Antonio Guiseppe Tranchida. Talk about the power of prayer! We married in 1961 and the Lord blessed us with four beautiful children: Joseph, Stephen, Elizabeth and Catherine; two wonderful sons-in-law: Jim and David and four precious grandchildren: Annabella, Seamus, Matthew and Stephen. Tony graduated from college with a degree in chemistry in 1962. Before graduation he was hired as a research chemist by Mac Dermid, Inc. (a specialty chemical company). A few years later, the labs moved from Michigan to the home office in Connecticut. After living there for a year he was offered a job with another company in Michigan but when he went to give his resignation, Mac Dermid offered him the job of District Sales Manager in the Great Lakes Region. So back to Michigan we went. And that was how Tony got into sales. In 1977 he was offered a Regional Sales Manager position on the West Coast. At that time it meant everything west of the Rockies. Yes, he traveled a lot; and when he retired in 1996, I said, "Finally, I have a full-time husband." We were married 54 years. Tony's recipe for a long happy marriage is this: 1) Kiss your wife good morning every day 2) Learn how to say, "Yes Dear" 3) Kiss her and tell her you love her every night Was I lucky? Oh yes, I certainly was! Tony had many friends: those in Michigan that we left behind (but never forgot), all his Mac Dermid friends, our wonderful neighbors, and all the great friends at St. Juliana's. Joining St. Juliana parish is one of the best decisions we made in California. Thank you all for coming to Tony's mass. He loved going to 6:30 AM mass every weekday and serving as altar boy for the priest. And afterward joining his friends for breakfast. He enjoyed these mornings very much. I called it "the Grumpy Old Men's Coffee Club." We all have our own memories of Tony T. Some of mine are: camping on our 10 acre property in Michigan (no water, no electricity). We called it "Club Chi Chi." Drinking wine and making Italian sausage with his friends in our kitchen (what a mess), wine tasting, cooking (we did a lot of that) for the Italian Catholic Federation annual dinner dance, cooking for the Servite Priest dinner meetings, and teaching his grandsons how to make homemade pasta while Annie was cooking a pot of grandma's marinara sauce. One of the most memorable incidents was when Tony and his sales force went to Connecticut for the annual sales meeting. They decided to dress up as a "M*A*S*H unit" and of course, Mr. T. dressed as "Klinger." He was the belle of the ball. He loved to garden and grow roses (especially pink). Now the gardener will have to take care of them. OhI could go on and on Tony's health started to deteriorate several years ago, with his second vascular surgery, prostate and bladder cancer all in the same year. Five years later the prostate cancer returned. He overcame it all until the bladder cancer made a reappearance and it was very aggressive. The fight was more than he could overcome. He left us on October 23, 2015. My husband is now at peace and finally out of pain. And for that, I am grateful. We love him and miss him terribly. But I know he is in a better place. I only hope St. Anthony was also there to greet him. We would like to thank all the people for their prayers and support during this time. We know Tony would have been honored by the tremendous amount of love. Mrs. T.