Rose Calabro

My grandmother, Rose Calabro, would have never wanted me to call her Grandma. She would have said "I'm not a grandma, I'm Nanny."

Nanny was born on August 1, 1933. She passed away on September 11, 2024. She was 39 years old. Nanny was 39 years old for 52 years of her life. At least, that's what she told me every time I asked her how old she was.

Nanny was a good woman. Based on her 3 surviving children, this is the truth. She spoke her mind and was strongly opinionated. Nanny was an independent woman and spent most of her time on her own exploring the world, as a child she would leave the house and spend all day out on her own and come back to the house later in the evening. Nanny was blind until she was 17 years old when she got her first job and took herself to get her first pair of glasses. Her father told her, “If your eyes are open, you can see”. As my grandmother would tell us many times over the years, when she grew up she was so poor that she had to put crumbled up newspapers in her shoes because they had no soles and she had to walk back and forth to school, through the snow, uphill, both ways.

Nanny spent her time collecting newspaper clippings of historical events, from world war 2, the Vietnam war, the Korean war, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, she always followed global events. She even recorded hundreds of hours of the news from the events of September 11, ironically the same day that she passed. She admired the lives of celebrities and was well read. Nanny enjoyed her romance novels and especially loved action movies from the Rambo's, Stephen Segal, and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. She loved Mario Lanza, Tom Selleck, Frank Sinatra and Tom (and his) Jones, to name a few.

We grew up spending almost every weekend at our grandparents house. Nanny always cooked extravagant dinners, like a true chef she was a master of Italian and sea-food cuisine. As we ate dinner, she would never sit down, always serving the next dish. She had a special talent for disguising leftovers as a completely new meal, you had no idea that you were eating yesterday's dish. There was no being full at the dinner table. If you said you were full she would give you another full plate and say “close your mouth and eat”...

During our time at Nanny’s house, she always had Star Wars on the TV ready for us to watch and always had treats and snacks including green apples and pistachios. She was a good grandmother that always took care of us and gave us the advice that if we ever needed anything we should call her, no matter where, and “use 1-800-COLLECT” she would say, “tell them I’ll pay for it!”. 

Nanny loved to gamble! She loved the casinos. She would often take trips to Las Vegas and go on many Sea Escape cruises. Of course, she was generous with all of us. She would take us to the casino and slip cash in our pockets so that we could play the games with her. We never lost when we went to the casino with Nanny, we always walked out winners, no matter what…

Nanny was one of 14 children. She was a middle child. She is survived by her sisters Pauline, Antonette, and Beatrice, and her brothers Phillip, Johnny, and Sal and by 3 of her children Donna, Frank, and Gary. Nanny was a grandmother to 7 grandchildren. Sterling and Scotty, Matthew and Christopher and Gary, Brandon, and Ericka. Nanny was a great grandmother to Kali, Michael, and Emily Grace.

We miss you Nanny.

May the memories of Nanny bring us comfort and peace in the days to come.

- Brandon Calabro