Maria E. (Lazzari) Antinarelli

Watertown – "Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget."

Maria Antinarelli was a good friend. She was also a beloved wife, a devoted mother, a doting "Nana" and the first female president of the Waltham West Suburban Chamber of Commerce.

She involved herself with the life of her family, her church and her community in ways large and small and always with a smile and a hug. She told almost everyone she met along life's journey at one time or another that 'I love you honey'. The greatest takeaway from meeting Maria was her joyfulness even when joy did not always come easy some days.

A daughter of Italian immigrants Joseph and Eugenia (Zannoni) Lazzari, Maria was born on February 4, 1927 in Boston and grew up in Dorchester's Savin Hill neighborhood. On February 15, 1947 she married the love of her life, George H. Antinarelli, and a few years later the couple moved to Watertown and to the newly formed Saint Jude Parish.

George and Maria were a perfect pair . . . he the quintessential quiet man . . . a good man, strong of mind and body and an able partner to Maria's buoyancy and spirit. Though their faith was tested when they lost George, Jr. in 1973, the couple shared a devotion to one another and to God that sustained them through fifty-seven happy years of marriage until George, Sr.'s death in February, 2004.

Maria died on Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at Maristhill Nursing Home in Waltham following a period of declining health. She was 88.

She was a proud graduate of Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Brighton and until she retired was the vice-president of University Bank & Trust Company, headquartered in Newton. Maria was also a graduate of the American Institute of Banking.

In addition to her involvement with the chamber, Maria was a member of the board of directors of the Waltham Boys & Girls Club, Waltham Hospital, Waltham Visiting Nurses Association, Meadowhouse, Inc., GWARC, and the Waltham Professional and Business Women's Club.

It was to her family and to her faith however that she reserved her greatest love and devotion. At Saint Jude's she was at one time or another, since the arrival of Father Dan McCabe as pastor until illness forced her to slow down the past few years, a member of every parish committee formed to help the church and the school. To paraphrase the words of Saint Paul . . . she fought the good fight . . . she finished the course . . . she kept the faith.

Maria leaves her children, Maria E. Stack and Jeanne M. Aubert and her husband, John, all of Waltham; her grandchildren, Edward Stack and his wife, Leah, Adam Stack and his wife, Vessy, and Kaleigh and Emily Aubert; her great-grandchildren, Dylan and Conor Stack; her sister and brother, Dorothea Lazzari of Dorchester and Joseph Lazzari and his wife, Linda, of Braintree and many nieces and nephews.

Family and friends will honor and remember Maria's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home. 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Thursday, December 17th from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning before leaving in procession to Saint Jude Church, 147 Main Street, Waltham where her Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in Ridgelawn Cemetery, Watertown.

Memorial donations may be made to Saint Jude Parish, 147 Main Street, Waltham, MA 02453.