Grace N. Ruscitti
Grace N. Ruscitti of Hopewell died on January 30, 2023 after a brief illness, a few months beyond her 95th birthday. She was preceded in death by her husband Ted in 2014.
Gracie was born in Rochester, PA to Peter and Grace Napoli on September 17, 1927, the second youngest of 7 children. She came of age entirely in the eras of the Great Depression and World War II, raised in a hard-working family where her father was active in local projects for the Works Progress Administration, her brothers served in the Armed Forces, and her mother worked with the family at home to garden, preserve, and prepare food amidst times of hardship for many. When asked about the roots of her own stalwart support of our family, Gracie said “It came from Grandma! We were poor but she always put good food on the table.”
She graduated from Geneva College and Carnegie Tech (now CMU). She taught home economics at Aliquippa High School, then retired from teaching to raise her family while applying everything she learned about nutrition and home management through to the end of her life. She was an accomplished seamstress who made or altered most of her own clothes, made many special dresses for the women in her family, and eventually developed a thriving private business. She also enjoyed teaching small group sewing lessons where she was also not shy about sharing pearls of feminine life wisdom with the mostly young women in her classes.
Even while she was primarily a home-maker, Gracie was a feminist before the term was fashionable, supporting women pursuing professional careers and always standing up for what she believed to be right within the patriarchal structures of church, education, health-care, and business. She was an activist in the Hopewell Township school district where her children were raised. She was progressive, spiritually independent, and direct with her views on just about everything. She routinely challenged school administrators, elected officials, and church clergy when their actions didn’t stand up to the principles expected of their positions.
Gracie liked to stay busy, informed, and connected. For many years she would crochet beautiful blankets while listening to the news; many in the family have a favorite, and she donated more than 40 blankets to churches in Beaver County. She did her best to stay connected with her extended family and was eager to be involved in the lives of her children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren, all of whom made their way into her daily prayers. She was always genuinely interested in listening to our involvements, interests, and needs.
Gracie’s love language was cooking, feeding, and nurturing her family, her friends, and their friends. She did it very well, and she never let anyone go hungry. Her Sunday “red dinners” would serve 20 or more family and their friends with her signature Italian dishes. She always seemed to keep track of who liked (or didn’t!) each dish and adjusted portions accordingly. As Gracie’s 9 great-grandsons began arriving, she would prepare and freeze healthy soups into small portion cups for the busy young mothers to pop into the microwave for their kids. In the last 30 years of her life she began reviving and refining her mother’s Italian cookie recipes. Gracie’s many varieties of biscotti and pizzelles were widely enjoyed. She always had them on hand in her fridge, baked dozens for the “Pittsburgh cookie tables” at her grandchildren’s weddings, and put together artful assortments in plates and tins to send along to her children’s friends, neighbors, and colleagues. She freely shared her recipes and loved to hear reports from those who were enjoying her specialties in many different states and as far away as Europe.
Mom lived actively in her own home with the support of family until the last week of her life, aided then by kind caregivers at Heritage Valley Sewickley and Good Samaritan Hospice in Wexford. She leaves behind her children Ted (Marilee), Tom, and Cathi Rittelmann (Eric); her grandchildren Molly Howard (Ben), Ann O’Leary (Mark), Ted III, Michael Rittelmann (Tara), Elizabeth James (Billy), and Rachel Rittelmann; her younger brother Peter Napoli (Betty); and 9 great-grandsons who really liked her cooking. Please honor Gracie’s legacy by cooking for your loved ones…often.