Obituary of Frances E. Andolora

The children of Frances Andolora are saddened to announce the passing of their beautiful mother on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at Heritage Park Rehab & Skilled Nursing. Frances Elizabeth Grillo, was born in Warren, Pa. on March 21, 1923. She was born to immigrants who came to America from Italy with very little money but with great hopes of making a better life for themselves and their family. Her father came over on the Carpathia, which was the ship that saved the survivors of the Titanic. Her parents were Thomas Grillo and Rose Berardi Grillo. She was raised in Warren during the great depression and graduated from Warren High in 1941. Like many young women of her era she supported the war effort by working at the New Process Factory in Warren. She moved to Jamestown after her marriage to Samuel Andolora. She was heavily involved in her six children's lives as they were growing up. It was an era of cloth diapers, wringer washing machines, and PTA meetings. Fran was known as a great cook. Her Sunday pasta dishes are legendary with the family. She was an avid baker. At any time in the house, the dining room table might have been piled high with Italian Cookies she was making as a gift for someone's wedding. She made dozens of loaves of her amazing Easter bread, anise flavored with an egg nestled in the dough, each Spring. People still come up to us and share how our mother would hand deliver a braid of the Easter bread to them personally, and with great love. It's perhaps not a coincidence that her birthday was on the first day of Spring, as she believed in the rebirth of life, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. She attended Mass at SS. Peter and Paul Church every day she was able to. She often led the rosary before Mass. Each of her six children were baptized, received First Communion, and were Confirmed at SS. Peter and Paul. At her insistence, we were required to attend Mass each Sunday until we were confirmed. Each Sunday there was a great struggle in our home to get us out of bed and ready for Mass. Somehow our Mother always won that battle. There was never a day she wasn't awake long before us. By the time we were out of bed, she would have had our breakfast made and our brown paper bag lunches, lined up in row, ready to be taken to school. She volunteered in any way she could at the church. She worked in the rectory helping out. She would help clean the church, and well into her 90's was in charge of changing and restocking the candles. She was a member of the Altar and Rosary Society. She was one of the original volunteers at St. Susan's when it first opened at the old Saint James School. The ladies would make the soup every day. She was awarded Volunteer of the Year the first year it started. She made the soup with love, which is how she approached everything in her life. With love. She is preceded in death by her parents, her son Gerald, her brother Carl, and her sister Mary. Surviving are her five children: Ronald, David, Richard (Becky), Tom (Bosco) and Sandra. She is also survived by her brother Thomas and his wife Irma and her sister-in-law Rita Grillo. She had three grandchildren, Nicholas Andolora, Anthony Andolora, and Adam Limb. Her surviving nieces and nephews were all very dear to her, James, Judi, and Marcia Grillo, Adria Grillo Peck and Linda, Debra, and Joseph Nicolletti. She was blessed with one Great Grandson, Lane Andolora. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Monday, March 29 in Holy Apostles Parish, Ss. Peter & Paul Church. The Rev. Dennis W. Mende will be celebrant. Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery. Friends and family will be received for a walk-through visitation from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Lind Funeral Home. The family would like to thank the staff at Orchard Grove, where our Mom spent her last years, for their kindness to our Mom, and to the Heritage Park staff for their comfort care at the end of her life. We will miss the unassuming, understated dignity our mother had. We will miss her loving presence in our lives. In lieu of flowers her children ask that you bring flowers to someone who might be elderly and lonely. Or take a dear friend, who might be in need of your friendship, to lunch. Or do a good deed anonymously for someone deserving. Our Mother would have liked that very much.