Agatha “Maria” Luongo lived her life unburdened by other people’s opinions. She lived half her life in small town Italy, raising three children alone as her husband worked in Switzerland. She took no shit and instilled that motto into her children; Maria was a firecracker until the day she died, resilient with a mouth like a sailor.
Maria lived the rest of her life in Toronto. She knew a handful of English words, but they were the most important: “backyard” “garbage” and “Big Mac”. Armed with these three words and a killer wooden spoon, she carved a path for her family in a strange new country.
Despite a life burdened with hardship, Maria had a wicked sense of humour. She would make faces at you from across the table, sing nursery rhymes to you (even if you were twenty-five), and found most mundane things amusing. She had more love in her than anything else, and her heart was (literally) too big. She lived to make her grandkids smile and drive her children absolutely apeshit.
Maria loved and lived fiercely. She is survived by her children- Giuseppina, Franca, Francesco; her grandchildren- Frank, Anthony, Valentina, Frances, Toni; and great-grandchildren-Isabella, Leo, Giulia, Briana, and Adriano. She is also survived by her son and daughter-in-laws- Domenico, Generoso, Angela, Stefania, Alejandra, and Chris.
We admire her, adore her, are insanely proud of her, and will miss her terribly.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Hospital for Sick Children or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.