euskalkultura.eus

01/01/2021 - Agoura Hills, EEUU

(publicado en Fresno Bee, Legacy.com el 10 de enero de 2021)

May 10, 1929 - December 31, 2020

An Italian immigrant, an American entrepreneur, a devoted mother, wife, sister, aunt, and friend. Mary Pedeflous, 91, left this world quietly and peacefully, just as she had lived. Tiny but mighty is how she can best be described, with a strength that belied her size, and a heart that worked overtime caring for others. She was the most selfless, sweetest soul.

Born in 1929 in San Colombano, Italy, she followed her family to the United States when she was just 17, a journey she took with her sister-in-law Josephine Lencioni. At Ellis Island the two were separated, and Mary was detained for three nights, traveling the remainder of the cross-country distance by train, alone.

In Bakersfield, she settled with her parents, taking on any job she could. With no English skills, she sewed potato sacks in a barn, and cleaned clothes at a dry-cleaners. There, thanks to a chatty coworker, she learned English. She took a job at Golden Crust Bakery in Bakersfield, a move that would change the course of her life. A coworker introduced her to another European immigrant, this one a young man from France, who worked at the Pyrenees Bakery nearby. At night, Mary worked in the snack bar at a drive-in theater, where Frank would visit. The two married in 1954, and had two children Frank and Grace. In 1963, when the kids were very young, Frank traveled to Fresno to begin his own bakery. The family followed in 1965. Together, Mary and Frank ran the Basque French Bakery for more than 30 years.

Mary spent her adult life working long days, slicing, wrapping, and boxing bread, physical work that developed the strong hands she carried with her into her 90s. No one worked harder than Mary, coming home from 12-hour days at the bakery to make dinner, clean the house, and entertain friends once or twice a week.

Parties at the Pedeflous house were legendary, with barbecued steaks, lamb chops, chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad, beans, pasta, chess pies, biscotti, cakes, enough food to feed ten times the number of people in attendance. Long tables pushed together in the family room, the sun porch, or the backyard depending on the size of the gathering. Mary and Frank doing all of the cooking and clean-up, rising early the next day to go to work.

When they retired in 1994, they made a new home on the north side of Fresno, creating a whole new community of friends, and devoting themselves to the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, where Mary attended mass every morning. The dinner parties continued. The new house was big enough to accommodate their growing family who gathered annually at Christmas, her favorite holiday. [Frank passed away in 2008]

Mary continued cooking, baking, and walking with neighbors into her early 80s. Her last years were spent with family, living with her sister Rita, and then with her son Frank and daughter-in-law Sandy, surrounded by her grandchildren and great grandchildren, and caregivers who loved her, most notably Gladys Albaro, Zoila Garcia, and Sylvia Vasilyan.

She was the last of eight children, the runt of the litter, and the last to depart this world. We imagine them all together again, cooking, eating, and laughing, and watching over all of us.

Mary is survived by her two children, Frank Pedeflous and Grace Hammerstrom; daughter-in-law Sandy Pedeflous; son-in-law Kris Hammerstrom; four grandchildren, Sean Pedeflous, Katie Pedeflous, Reese Hammerstrom and Dana Hammerstrom; and two great grandchildren Bodhi and Luna Drye.