Rose Amelia Contrera

Rose Amelia Contrera (nee Adornetto) went home to God on Thursday, July 29, after 91 years of devotion to faith and family. Rosie was born January 23, 1930 to Salvatore Adornetto and Maria Lenzo, who had just immigrated to East Cleveland from Messina, Sicily. When Rose was just six years old, her father died of tuberculosis, leaving behind Rosie and her six beloved siblings, William (Clara), Raymond (Jessie), John (Sue), Josephine, Tony (Carol) and Rita (Jim). Rose, too, was infected with TB, and had to spend months of her high school years in the hospital. When asked what she remembered most from that harrowing experience, Rose always laughed, saying the nurses couldn’t believe how much she liked to eat. From then on, hers was a story about the power of pasta, perseverance and prayer. In her early 20s, she went to church every Monday to pray a Novena, asking to meet the love of her life. Her cousin kept telling her she already knew who it would be: Augustine Contrera, a strapping young man from another Sicilian family in town. For weeks, Rose resisted, saying, “I don’t care how nice he is, I’m not marrying anybody shorter than me.” But after many more prayers, she relented. On her very first date with Gus, who would become her husband of 57 years, she stepped in dog poop on the way to the car. She wiped it right off her shoe without making a fuss. That’s when he knew she was the one. While working at Geddy, Love’s and John Michael photography studios, Rose helped Gus run his partitions businesses and raise his prizewinning beagles. Their weekends were spent socializing at the Siciliano Club, serving spaghetti at the Beagle Club and never missing a Sunday morning mass. But Rose’s true pride was her loving and loyal children: Joe, Bill, Ken, and Ken’s beloved wife Peggy. Then she was blessed with four grandchildren, Tom, Kevin, Jessica and Keith Contrera, who inherited her love of photography, the secrets to making a roaster full of pasta sauce and maybe, just a little of her stubbornness. In 2020, she became a great grandmother – twice! – with the births of Anais (daughter of Tom and Lianne) and Madelyn (daughter of Kevin and Katie). Rose cherished every one of her Adornetto and Contrera family members, who came together to throw her one massive 90th birthday party a few months before the pandemic. Even Frank Sinatra and Father Guido Sarducci were there. But because of her devoted neighbor and caregiver, Debbie Shamburger, Rose was made to feel special every day of the year. Whenever family and friends encountered a challenge in their lives, they dialed Rosie, who could solve any problem with four words: “I’ll call the nuns.” Call she did, and because of her prayers and theirs, tests were passed, jobs were earned, sales were made and suffering of all kinds was eased. We can only imagine what she’ll achieve now that she has direct access to the big man upstairs. We will gather to celebrate Rosie’s life Monday, August 2, for calling hours from 4 to 8 p.m. at Ripepi Funeral Home, 5762 Pearl Rd in Parma. A funeral mass will take place at 11 a.m.  Tuesday, August 3, at St Francis De Sales Church, 3434 George Ave. Due to concerns about Covid variants, the family respectfully requests masks are worn at the services. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the places that cared most for Rosie in her final days, St. Francis De Sales Church and Mount Alverna Village, and the nuns who always took her calls, the Sisters of St Joseph in Cleveland.