Rita Grillone of Holland passed away on Monday, June 6, 2016 at her residence in Twining Village. She was 94 years old.

Rita was the beloved wife of the late Salvatore Grillone.

Born in Camden, NJ, she was a daughter of the late Angelo and Loretta Calise Monforte.

Rita Grillone was born (midwife assisted) on Tuesday, November 13^th, 1921, at 227 Stevens Street, in Camden, NJ. The proud parents were Loretta and Angelo Monforte, immigrants to the United States from Italy who arrived around 1900. Rita is the last child of 10 children (8 girls and 2 boys) – Victoria (Vee), Louisa, Joseph, Liberty (Lib), Anna, Louis, Mary, Carmella (Connie) and Helen.

Mom and her large family lived through the Great Depression of the 1930’s. She remembered sweet potato lunches with soup and stale bread dinners. Times were tough and she often went without shoes! Things got better when her older sisters began working. Rita loved to sing, and her sister Mary paid for voice lessons. At 10 years old, Mom sang June in January on the radio station WDAS. She later recorded that song and South of the Border in a public recording studio at 13^th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia. A friend who accompanied her on the piano paid for the recordings. Rita also sang in shows where she had small parts and loved doing it. Her father was involved in the Democratic Party, and Mom sang on the campaign trucks that traveled through the streets singing “We are all for Roosevelt…” At 14 (lying about her age and needing to help her family), Mom started working at Campbell Soup Company during the summers. Usually working 12 and sometimes 16-hour days, her best pay week was when she took home $29! Rita went to Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden, taking the commercial curriculum. She completed 10^th grade, but then had to quit school to care for her ailing mother. Her sister Anna opened up a “beauty shop” and salon at 8^th and Manning (near Spruce) Streets in Center City Philadelphia, and Mom worked there off and on during her teen years. She attended the Marie DeMedicus Beauty School at 10^th and Market Streets and passed the beautician test to become licensed at age 16. Rita began to work at other salons to gain experience and develop her skills. At 17, her mother went to live with her sister Louisa in Brooklyn, NYC. With only Mom, her father and her sister Connie living there, their now large home in Camden was sold. The three moved into an apartment in South Philadelphia on Ellsworth Street. A few years later her father bought a house nearby on Latona Street near Wharton, where she lived until she was married.

At 24 years old, in June 1945, Rita met her future husband, Salvatore (Sal), at the Earl Movie Theater in Center City at 11^th and Market Streets. One night she went to see the movie The Miracle Worker. While searching for a seat in the dark theater, someone said, “Sit here.” Rita sat next to a gentleman who was accompanied by three male friends. The man talked so much that Salvatore volunteered to sit in Rita’s seat, and she sat in his seat away from the “chatty” friend. The men left after the movie ended, but Rita coming late had only seen part of the movie and wanted to stay for another showing. Salvatore asked if he could wait for her. Rita said, “Yes.” After the movie, Rita and Sal went to nearby Linton’s Restaurant for coffee. While going home, they waited for the trolley together. It did not come, and Sal offered to walk her home. Outside her door, he asked to see her again, and Rita gave Sal her phone number. Sixteen months later they were married on October 13^th, 1946, one of the happiest moments in her life. The other “happiest moment” were the births of their children: son Gregory was born February 17^th, 1948 (wife Debbie Bruner, PhD.); followed by John on December 23^rd, 1950; Carol on April 28^th, 1952 (husband Jack Moffo and children Tara, Carolyn and Matthew) and Richard (Ricky) on January 21^st, 1958 (wife Michelle Niczyporowicz and children Melanie and Richard Jr). Mom and her family settled in a row home in South Philadelphia at 1706 S. 28^th Street. The family was Roman Catholic and joined St. Gabriel’s Parrish at 29^th and Dickinson Streets. The children attended Anthony Wayne Public Elementary School, across the street from their home. (It was convenient and the expense of Catholic School was out of the question for this family of 6.) As a mother to four and a part-time hairdresser in the basement of her home (to earn money to help the family), Mom settled in as a full-time housewife and homemaker.

Even with a busy family life, Rita found time to volunteer. Mom started volunteering at the free City Health Center at Broad and Morris Streets. Also, at her sister Anna’s beauty salon there was a young adult customer, Minerva Kuntz, who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). After the salon closed, she traveled weekly to Mrs. Kuntz’s home at 8^th and Spruce Streets to do her hair. Subsequently, Rita became involved with the MS cause too. For many years, she did volunteer work with MS that included feeding the severely afflicted MS patients at the University Of Pennsylvania Hospital (HUP) at 34^th and Spruce Streets.

In 1965, Rita and her family moved to a new 3-bedroom row home in Far Northeast Philadelphia, on Fairdale Road. Not yet having sold their home in South Philadelphia and subsequently needing to pay two mortgages, once again, times were tough. Mom continued to do hair on the side and also got a full-time job at a local clothing factory called Queen Casuals, where she did piecework as a trimmer. She worked long, grueling hours and took care of her family. During this time, Rita also experienced another “happiest moment” in her life. Mom never finished High School. Yet, she felt that just taking the GED was not good enough and wanted to finish her final 2 years of high school in a real setting. From age 47 to 51, she found the strength and determination to finish high school and get her diploma. She graduated from Northeast Evening High School in June 1972. The graduation ceremony was at Benjamin Franklin High School, at Broad and Spring Garden Streets, and Sal (Dad) wished Mom well with dozen red roses that day.

The following year, tough times struck again. On the 4^th of July after a picnic in the backyards of all of her neighbors, Rita, only 52, lost her Salvatore (62 years). He died of a massive heart attack at Nazareth Hospital. She was angry with God and the doctors, yet still knew that she needed to accept what life had dealt her and that she must now get a job with better pay and benefits. It was then that she decided to take a job with the City of Philadelphia and became a records clerk at the Riverview Nursing Home in Northeast Philly. Working with the elderly and the sick at Riverview helped Mom overcome the anger of her loss and “move on” with her life. During this time she also worked with Voter Registration in the neighborhood.

While working at the nursing home, the beautician at Riverview was off on an extended leave due to a tragedy in her family, leaving the sick and elderly without one of the few pleasures that they still had in life. Rita decided that after she finished her clerical work in the morning that she would put her beautician skills to good use in Riverview’s Beauty Salon in the afternoon. Her bosses offered to compensate her with out-of-class pay. However, in her spirit of caring for others and her instinctively selfless motivation, Rita performed both jobs and turned down the offer. During the Christmas holiday season, the elderly residents were scheduled to travel to a dinner show. A bit overwhelmed by the 30 or so “heads” to do for that special event, Rita asked her daughter Carol (also a licensed beautician) to help out. They were able to complete the job, and all the residents were “decked out” for the holidays. Rita later received a beautiful commendation from Riverview.

During this time, Rita also decided to join the Feasterville, PA, Chapter of To Live Again (TLA), an organization that provides support for widowed men and women. Rita served as vice-president once and president 2 times and remained a member. With TLA she traveled to many places: Italy, Spain, France, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Branson (Missouri), Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Florida and all five of the Great Lakes. Rita retired from the City’s employ at the age of 66, and continuing to keep active, joined the Franklin Mills Milers where she walked daily for six years from 1989 to 1995.

After realizing that her days of climbing three stories of her home on Fairdale Road were numbered and finding herself living alone in a big house, in 2000, Rita moved to Ivy Greene, a “plus 55 community,” and into a beautiful townhouse on Grandview Drive, Ivyland, PA. Once again, Mom felt the need to volunteer her time. With her neighbors, she made pillows and stuffed animals for children with cancer. She also found the time to volunteer at the nearby Warminster Hospital by assisting with the medical record keeping in the Physical Rehabilitation Unit. When that extensive job was completed, Rita then volunteered to work at the Gift Shop on Friday afternoons. Eventually Warminster Hospital was acquired by Abington Hospital. She wanted to continue to volunteer. However Abington administrators required that all volunteers pay $18 for a smock. After considering that she would give her time and also purchase gasoline to travel there, the usually feisty and now righteously indignant Rita refused to pay to volunteer with Abington Hospital!

Mom also loved to read and watch old movies. She played cards with her dear friends a couple times a week, did water exercises 2-3 times a week and occasionally met up with friends at Ivy Greene for games of Scrabble and bowling (Wii). During the last 40 years of “off and on memberships”, Rita loved Weight Watchers’ Meetings on Saturdays at a nearby shopping center. After family dinners and get-togethers, she also loved to play friendly games of poker with her 4 children, 5 grandchildren, other family members and friends. With her intrinsic friendliness and kindness that she offered to all she meets, Mom throughout the years made many loving and long-lasting friendships!

With her health failing and no longer able to drive and care for herself independently, Mom moved from Ivy Greene to Twining Village Manor (assisted living) in Holland (PA) a few years ago. There she made many friends with residents, nurses, aides and recreation and dining room staff. Mom loved to play and teach card games to other “residents”. She also loved bingo and attending other events at Twining. Mom bowled for many years, but at this delicate late age, she was relegated to play Wii Bowling. She usually played twice a week on Monday nights and Wednesday afternoons. She bowled over 200 many times and made unbelievable splits. (I was there and saw it!) Even when her right hand was recuperating from surgery from a middle finger infection (due to unsterilized utensils at a nail salon), Mom bowled with her left hand and had high scores!

In the last few months, Mom’s health began to fail. She was on oxygen 24 hours a day from a heart condition and weakened by other ailments. My siblings saw Mom having good days and bad days. All of this was unpredictable. Yet Mom continued to “weather the storm” until the storm overwhelmed her. She passed on Monday, June 6^th, 2016 at 5:15PM with her family nearby. People say, “She’s in a better place now”. However, Mom always made the world a better place and touched everyone she met: loving, caring, and yes, feisty till the end.

This past Mother’s Day, Mom received a heartfelt and beautiful card. It reads:

“Mom, you’re never one

to ask for much.

You give and give,

and then when it comes time

to spoil you a little,

you tell everyone you

already have all you need.

But even if that’s true,

you still need to hear

what a wonderful woman you are –

a woman who’s been

an endless source of

love and inspiration

through the years…

And even though it could

never equal all you’ve done,

you have every bit

of love and gratitude

I have to give.

You always will.”

Surviving are her children, Gregory Grillone and his wife, Debra Bruner of Norwood, PA, John Grillone of Philadelphia, PA, Carol Moffo and her husband, John, of Philadelphia, PA, and Richard Grillone and his wife, Michelle, of Southampton, PA. She also leaves behind her grandchildren, Tara Shuck and her husband, Brian, Carolyn Millard and her husband, Kenneth, Matthew Moffo, Melanie Grillone, and Richard M. Grillone. Rita also was eagerly anticipating her first great-grandchild due in October.

In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by nine siblings.

Relatives and friends are invited to greet the family on Sunday, June 12, 2016, from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, 800 Newtown-Richboro Rd., Richboro, PA 18954 and on Monday, June 13, 2016, from 9:00 AM until her Funeral Mass 10:00 AM at St. Bede the Venerable Church, 1071 Holland Rd., Holland, PA 18966. Her interment will follow in Resurrection Cemetery, Bensalem.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Aid For Friends, 12271 Townsend Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19154.