Mary Lou (Breidenbach) Apicella
Mary Lou (Breidenbach) Apicella was born May 24, 1935, in Tiffin, Ohio, to Albert Joseph Breidenbach and Helen Margaret McElfish. She grew up in Tiffin and easily made friends throughout the years. After graduating from Calvert High School, Mary Lou began working as a switchboard operator and eventually became a service assistant for Ohio Bell. She enjoyed going dancing with friends. She met Antonio Apicella dancing one night and they married on June 16, 1956, at St Joseph's Church, Tiffin. In 2021 she moved from Tiffin to live in Duluth, MN, with her daughter and family.
Mary Lou had several hobbies. She loved playing playing pinochle with her girlfriends, and they took turns hosting a card club. She was incredibly creative and could decorate her house to look beautiful no matter the season. Mary enjoyed arranging flowers, creating crafts, reading, and painting. Part of her creativity shone when she made Halloween costumes for her children. They were always fun and elaborate. She also loved to dress up herself, oftentimes fooling friends or coworkers as to who was inside her costume! Her love of painting took her to painting a French street mural on a basement wall in a room that she and Tony created for their teenage children's "hangout." Growing up, her children delighted in the pictures she painted covering her picture windows at Christmas time. She painted anything "Christmas" on the windows from Mary and baby Jesus to elves and Santa. Mary also loved to sing and listen to music. She was often singing her favorite songs around the house and kept up with some of the pop music on the radio to add to her list of favorites.
They all followed her in a love of music, playing instruments, singing in choirs, or just listening to varieties of music. Her children all learned her colloquialisms that she would spout instead of swearing, with "holy banana nose," being one that brought giggles. Speaking of giggles, when Mary Lou and her daughters got together, it rarely failed that something silly would happen to make the three of them laugh so hard they could hardly catch their breath. When asked what was so funny, they could only go back to laughing. Her grandchildren also loved some of the silly things she said and could never get used to her "Ohio" vocabulary, often putting an "r" in a word with no "r," as in "warsh." She made fun birthday cakes for birthdays and loved to celebrate anything with her children.
We had several household pets as children, including a parakeet, a rabbit, a beagle mix dog and she took in some cats that needed a place when one of us could not have pets where we lived. She loved them as much as we did. There was even a backyard squirrel that she named, Lady, who would come to eat nuts from her hand! Her newer love was Splash. Splash is an American Water Spaniel who was a tiny puppy who came to live in Duluth with Mary and the Silvestrini family soon after Mary Lou arrived in Duluth. What was extra special between them was that Splash was born on her birthday! She loved to tell people that!
Mary Lou was very proud of her four children and their families. She absolutely adored when her children came to visit or when she was able to visit them. Her family was incredibly fond of her scalloped potatoes and requested them every time the family was together. No one has ever seemed to be able to reproduce them as excellently as she did. She also had a way of making everyone feel welcome at her house. While her children were in school, she rarely missed a Columbian High School football game or parade so that she could listen to her children in the band.
Mary Lou held several jobs after her daughters left for college. She spent many years as a waitress and/or hostess for restaurants throughout Tiffin. She spent some time working in retail and volunteered in the gift shop at Mercy Hospital.
In 2013, Mary Lou was diagnosed with Good Pasture's Disease, which destroyed her kidneys and part of her lungs. She was a warrior, living 11 years on dialysis and 3 years on full-time oxygen. She only gave in when given another difficult diagnosis just prior to her death. She died peacefully onThrursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at Solvay Hospice House in Duluth, MN, with her oldest daughter and her granddaughter by her side.
Her family is grateful for all the people near and far who inspired her life and helped keep her laughing.
Mary is survived by her daughters, Dawn (Skip) Silvestrini of Duluth, MN, Kim Apicella (Jimmy Whitecotton) of St Louis, MO, and sons Eugene (Valerie Fox) Apicella of Valley Center, CA, and David (Janet Wise) Apicella of Tiffin, OH; her grandchildren, Michael (Briana Beck) Silvestrini of Robbinsdale, MN and Nicole Silvestrini, of Duluth, MN; her great-grandson, Oscar Jones, of Shrewsbury, England, and his mother, Kerri Jones, of Shrewsbury, England: and her grand-dogs, Dizzy and Splash.
She was preceded in death by her brother, Eugene Breidenbach; her father, Albert Breidenbach; her mother, Helen (McElfish) Breidenbach, and her husband, Antonio Apicella.
A celebration of her life will be held at St. Mary's Church on Friday, Nov. 8, at 10:00 AM. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery immediately following the service. A reception will follow in St. Mary's School.
In lieu of flowers, Mary Lou asked that donations be made to one of the following charities:
Wounded Warriors, The Good Pasture's Syndrome American Kidney Fund, The National Kidney Association or The American Cancer Society.
