Nellie R. Colarelli

Memorial contributions may be made to The American Cancer Society. Nellie's father, John Hastings, came to the United States from England. Her mother, Mary Moore, came from Ireland. Nellie was born August 4, 1909, the youngest of 5 children, and the only girl amongst 4 brothers. The family lived on the south side of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her oldest brother died in the 1st world war. In the year 1919, a terrible influenza epidemic hit the East Coast. Nellie and her mother prepared soup for the sick in the neighborhood. She would deliver the soup to the front door and collect the container from the day before. If the container was still there, untouched, that meant the people were dead. Nellie and her mother boiled the containers on the back porch to prevent the spread of the virus. During this epidemic, Nellie's remaining three brothers died. Her father died April 20, 1932 of unknown causes. Her mother, Mary died the same year on September 23. Nellie went to live with her Aunt for a short time, and finally settled with her Uncle Johnny. Nellie wanted to be a nurse so her Uncle Johnny paid her tuition to nursing school run by a Philadelphia hospital. She did well until her uncle found out that one of her duties was to wash the bodies of those who died overnight. Her uncle being a confirmed bachelor was so horrified, he demanded she leave the school. Then Nellie became a court stenographer. Even though she had only completed the 8th grade, she did well. While working, another court stengrapher, named Henry Colarelli, caught her eye. Her Uncle Johnny did not want her to date so Nellie had to be very careful dating her future husband. They dated secretly for a while. Then in a bold move, she and Henry married, secretly, July 27, 1932. Though they were married they lived separately for a few years, until her Uncle Johnny died of uremic poisoning. Nellie and Henry lived in Philadelphia for about 1 year, where Henry was in charge of the East Coast Immigration and Naturalization Department. Nellie would stay at home with Betty, while her husband sent illegal aliens to New York for deportation. May times he came home with bruises on his face. Nellie knew not to ask him about them, because he would not discuss it. They moved to Hadden Heights New Jersey where the oldest daughter Elizabeth Ann was born the following year. Nellie loved to tell the story of the cat they had in New Jersey. The cat would sit beneath Betty's coach and come running and meowing as loud as it could when Betty awakened. The family moved back to Philadelphia three years later where their second child Marian was born. In 1948, Henry was transferred to Washington D.C. to be in charge of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Nellie became pregnant and in 1949 gave birth to Henry Raymond in Alexandria Virginia. The family stayed in Arlington Virginia until 1952 when Henry came to Midwest Division in an attempt to curb the flow of Mexicans into the United States. In 1956, Henry was diagnosed with lung cancer. Nellie kept the family going while she and Marian took Henry for daily chemotherapy. Six months later he died of lung cancer. Marian started nursing school that year, and six months later Betty got married. After that, Nellie was forced to return to work. She still had Henry to raise. She found a job at Lammerts Furniture Store, doing table decorations. Although she had only driven a car a few times, she practiced very hard and was able to drive to work daily. (She always hated driving.) After a year, Marian left nursing school to help Nellie at home. The next year Marian married her high school sweetheart. Both Betty and Marian had 4 sons. Nellie was blessed with 8 grandsons, 6 great granddaughters and 1 great grandson. She was always there when anyone needed help with the children. She would give the children rides on her back, get down on her hands and knees and clean the floor or cook dinner for anyone (even though she hated to cook). When Nellie finally retired from Lammerts, she began riding the Bistate buses. We were amazed at her ability to be on the wrong bus at the wrong time. She seemed to have a knack for being on the bus that was involved in an accident, or shots were fired at the bus. She decided one year to take a bus tour to Hearst Castle in California. First of all the bus broke down in Arizona, where the temperature was 110. They were told to get off the bus and wait for the replacement bus. Unfortunately the replacement bus was smaller than the original bus. They had to put wooden planks across the seats. Guess who ended up with splinters in her rear. Besides that, two people on the tour were taken to the hospital with heart attacks. She never took another bus trip. The neighborhood she lived in on Miami Street in St. Louis became very rundown. There were always police cars screaming down the street. I'll never forget the time I was talking to her on the phone and she said, ''There are men in blue jackets climbing up my building''. At the same time she heard the police knocking at her door telling her not to open the door to anyone. As you can see, never a dull moment with Nellie. A few years later she was walking home from Sears at 10:00 in the morning. She was jumped from behind; someone jumped on her back and banged her head into the pavement repeatedly. Someone heard her screaming and came running up the street. That person scared the robber away and probably saved her life. Nellie ended up in ICU for several days with bleeding in her brain. That ultimately led to the frontal lobe dementia she suffered in later years. Nellie never wanted sympathy. She was a survivor. She would make do with what she had. However, her mental condition deteriorated greatly when Betty died of lung cancer. Nellie lived to be 92 years old. She had three children, two daughters and one son, eight grandchildren, all boys, 7 great grandchildren, 6 girls and 1 boy and 1 great great grandchild. Her family was the most important thing to her. Nellie was always giving of herself. She never had much money but would give of her time at a moments notice. This dear sweet lady has earned her place in Heaven. Nellie moved on to join many of her loved ones, her husband Henry, her oldest daughter, Betty, and her son-in-law Larry. God's speed Mom.