Obituary of Carmela Palamara

April 23, 1929 – October 3, 2021 

Carmela Palamara.  Age 92 of Brownstown.

Beloved wife of the late Dominic Palamara.  Loving mother of Sam (Peggy) Palamara, Jeana (John) Rzeppa, Grace (Edward) Roginski, the late Frank “Cheech” Palamara, Julie (Christopher) Blicharski and Joseph (Jennifer) Palamara.  Dear sister of Nicky Varicalli.  Also survived by 14 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren.  

The services will be live-streamed.  The family encourages anyone who wishes to participate to please do so.  Please click the following link to be directed to the live stream services: Livestream Link.

Family Tribute

Carmela came to the Palamara clan from her small, tight-knit Siciliano family consisting of her mother Eugenia, father Francesco, and sister Nicky. The story is that both the Sicilianos and Palamara families were at dinner when the marriage of Dominic and Carmela was arranged.  Dom told the story this way, “You see that girl over there, I’m gonna marry her”.  Carmela’s version was more like, “I told Uncle Rocco that he seemed like a nice man, but…” And before she could finish, the celebration was on, with Uncle Rocco announcing that Dominic and Carmela would marry.  At 18 she started her vocation of wife and mother with an old-country arranged marriage that lasted 50 years.
 
Carmela was more talented than she ever believed, she built a community of friends and neighbors based around ceramics and paper tole.  She filled the house with beauty using her eye for decorating, but her artistic side was truly expressed through her culinary expertise.  The kitchen was her studio, food her medium.  After receiving rave compliments for her cooking, her genuinely humble response was always “it’s a meal.”  Cooking with her family was her happy place – her comfort zone.  Reflecting back, it is easy to see now why she rarely used a recipe or wrote down what and how she came up with her creations.  She believed that a recipe was just a starting point.  If one was lucky enough to spend some time with her in the kitchen making sugo, breaded steak or chicken, or God help us “squashburgers”, you understand that her process was pretty tough to replicate. The more folks that were around her in the kitchen, the better the meal tasted. Her life was spent in one kitchen or another preparing food. Lots of food: roasting peppers, canning and pickling everything from tomatoes to cucumbers, to “crock” with the Varacallis in Warren (the site of our yearly “2nd Christmas “) or making dozens of cannoli and pizzelles with Palamara Aunts and Uncles. We all had our favorites, and she was always eager to treat us to those on special occasions. 
 
Carmela’s later years were much ado about her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren often times staying for weeks, months, and even years helping her kids raise their kids in Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Traverse City.  This, from a woman who other than some yearly trips to Carey, Ohio and some weekend sleep-overs with her sister Nicky didn’t really leave Wyandotte very often.  Her time raising the next and the next generations kept her young, vibrant, and always on trend!

One can only hope she knew how loved and respected she was not only by her children and numerous nieces and nephews but by countless friends.