This memorial website was created in memory of Theresa Stubeda, who passed away on August 29, 2014, at the age of 96.
Theresa Sodi Stubeda was born in Cambridge, MA on July 16, 1918. She was one of 9 children.
Born only a few years after her parents immigrated from Italy, she spoke only Italian until she learned English at school.
Growing up, she felt very close to her grandmother, Loretta Moreno, who lived with the family. She also grew up with her nephew, “cousin Louie”, whose mother, her sister Amelia, had died at an early age.
Her father was a cobbler, who had his own little shop, while her mother worked as a seamstress, making men’s clothing.
Theresa started working at a local dry goods store about the age of 12, and eventually had to quit school to work longer hours to help support the family (this was during the depression).
She met John Stubeda at a later job at a meat-packing company in Boston. Every Friday she brought him her pepper and egg sandwich (throughout her life food was an expression of love and affection). When they were married on Dec. 6 1940, she was the first of her siblings to marry into a non-Italian family.
John and Theresa settled in a home not far from her mother’s house in Somerville. Their first daughter, Sandy, was born in January of 1942.
Many of John’s brothers enlisted as the country entered World War II. As the father of a young daughter, John instead was trained to be a welder and sent to work in a defence factory (at GE, where he continued on for many years until his retirement).
Their second daughter, Patty, was born in January of 1945. Theresa would get up early in the morning to take both daughters to her mother’s home, then would et on the bus to Boston for work.
Denise was born in 1953, and Debbie in 1957. It was about this time that the family moved to a new home in Melrose. Theresa single-handedly managed the purchase of the new house and the sale of the old one. She also purchased a car for John to commute to work (although she never drove it, never learning to drive). The car was a gigantic bright blue Buick, stayed with the family until the floor literally rusted out (and beyond, as a piece of wood was put down over the hole).
Theresa went to work making curtains at a factory in Melrose as it was within walking distance, and later at Servomation, where she is said to have been popular with the younger workers. She stayed on at Servomation until John retired, and they moved to Derry, NH. Despite John’s retirement, Theresa continued to work in the kitchen of a local nursing home in New Hampshire. She eventually stopped working only when John was no longer able to drive her to work.
For many years following her retirement, she kept shop in Sandy and Patty’s gift store on Bearskin Neck in Rockport, where she created a wonderful network of friendships with neighbours, vacationers and other store keepers. Vacationers would return to the store year after year just to say hello to her.
Throughout her life, Theresa was a hard working, talented and family-oriented woman. While she working outside the home almost continuously for 5 decades in physically demanding jobs, she was still able to devote a tremendous amount of energy to her family and home life. She cooked Italian specialities from scratch, making her own pasta, as well as wonderful soups and stews, and decorated her daughter’s birthday cakes in great style. She was always ready with wonderful desserts for all of the bake sales. She sewed clothes for her family, making fully lined Easter coats for her daughters every year. She grew beautiful gardens around the house, loving to send floral bouquets to neighbours, friends and her daughter’s teachers.
She always has been the center of her large (and ever-growing) family. She is survived by her four daughters, her nine grandchildren, as well as her three great grandchildren, who will all remember her fondly. We will miss her.
