Phyllis Margaret Remal was born on March 11, 1928, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to Axel and Hilda (Suomala), both first-generation Americans after their families immigrated from Finland in the 1890s. Of her five siblings, three were older brothers who all served in World War II.
Phyllis married George Joseph Colello (whose family had immigrated to Lunenburg, MA, from Italy) on April 17, 1948, in her hometown. Prior to marrying, George had served in the European Theater in WWII.
They had four children (including my Mom). I often think of how incredible my grandmother was. By age 28, she welcomed four children and due to poor nutritional knowledge for mothers at the time, she lost all her teeth by the time she was 30 – what a hard time it must have been, all the while being a wonderful mother!
In her early 40s (in the 1970s) she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that did not yet have medications to treat it properly. Slowly over the remainder of her life, she lost the ability to walk and later the ability to move at all. I think on how scary it must have felt, but she powered through as though it never bothered her (at least, that was my perspective as a child).
She died on December 5, 1999 at the age of 71, and was buried next to her husband George (who had passed away earlier that year) in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
- Honored by Cynthia Walker
