Mourners, admirers pay their respects to Vaughan's 'saint'
Isabella Ferrara will be remembered for the size of her heart, breadth of her impact

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 18, 2017
By Jeremy Grimaldi

When Isabella Ferrara invited Dorothy Soler to dinner at a restaurant, she never actually knew where they'd end up.

"Sure enough, we'd get to her home to pick her up and the entire house would smell like her amazing cooking," Soler recalled, shedding a tear, before entering Ferrara's funeral at Immaculate Conception church on Feb. 18.

"Her white pizza was the best thing I've ever tasted," added Soler's husband, Walter.

Her cooking was but a small facet of the woman. Mostly it was Ferrara's "generosity, caring nature, kind heart and beautiful spirit" those in attendance paid tribute to.

"She was like a saint. She was a mother, a loving Nonna to seven grandchildren, a selfless person who loved to crochet," said her daughter Anna. "She always wanted the family together; it didn't matter what day of the week."

Fighting back tears, her daughter spoke of the Mediterranean cruise the family had planned for Ferrara and her husband Vince's 50th wedding anniversary, which was to occur next year.

Outside of her home life, Ferrara was a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee award winner for her work as president of the Pine York Seniors Club and the driving force behind the Seniors Association of Vaughan Initiative (SAVI), which included Chinese, South Asian, Jewish and Macedonian groups.

According to Adriana Marsili, a member of the almost 200-member Pine York group, it was through working with seniors that Ferrara demonstrated her devotion to others.

"She was everything you'd want in a woman, caring and beautiful...very outgoing, full of life, we will never forget her," she said.

Experiencing Ferrara was like accepting a "ray of sunshine" into one's life, explained Donna Antonacci, a neighbour of Ferrara's son.

Father James, who led the Saturday service, said when he heard of Ferrara's stroke, he rushed to the hospital to grant her the "sacrament of the sick" prior to her passing, something he called "deeply spiritual".