Josefina Marrone Gardner

Joanne, or Josefina, lived a lot of her life in Chicago, having emigrated with her family from Argentina to Chicago in 1912, on a ship that entered the U.S. through Ellis Island.

On May 19, 1919, Josefina and her three siblings--Michael, Philip, and Agnes--entered Chicago's catholic orphanage system, including St. Mary's Training School.

At some point, Josefina's first name evolved, morphing from the Italian "Josefina" into a more Americanized "Joanne."

On February 24, 1982, Joanne became a widow, and she lived alone in Chicago for a number of years.

Her grandson Jakob remembers a time when Joanne visited the Rosenzweig home in Tuscaloosa between 1986 and 1989. On her visits, Joanne would sleep in the twin bed in Melissa's bedroom, and Melissa would move to the couch in the dining room. During one of Joanne's visits, a tornado struck the house's neighborhood one night. Melissa remembers waking up to the sound of pine cones hitting the dining room window. Jakob remembers being woken up in the middle of the night and being told to come sleep on the hallway floor. In the light of morning, the Rosenzweig's stepped outside to discover that a large pine tree had fallen in the front yard, and that it had missed the corner of the house where Melissa's bedroom was, and where Joanne was sleeping, by only a few feet. Despite this close proximity, Joanne managed to sleep through the night without waking up.

Eventually, after 1989, Joanne moved from Chicago to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to live with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. Gradually, symptoms of Alzheimer's appeared in Joanne's everyday life. Her long-term memory was unscathed, but her short-term memory was noticeably weakened. For example, Joanne's grandson Jakob remembers, on his 12th birthday, that his grandmother insisted that he was not 12 years old, but rather 7 years old.

Jakob also remembers that Joanne had peanut butter toast for breakfast every morning. When they watched TV together, she would ask for the volume to be increased, and increased. Joanne often helped her daughter Marianne prepare dinner for five people in the evening. Jakob remembers Joanne's cooking with fondness, especially her pies, and her rendition of pastitsio.

At the end of her life, Joanne lived in an assisted living home for the elderly in nearby Northport, Alabama. She passed away at the age of 85 on August 30, 1995. She was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119590984/joanne-gardner