Obituary: Antoinette G. Monte, 

1917-2013 WEST PALM BEACH, FL

No matter how hard I tried on Saturday, it seemed I couldn’t go fast enough, driving to Kennedy (left BTV at 7:15 and was at the gate by 1:30 despite stopping and traffic) and finally flying to Fort Meyers. When I arrived at Hospice, my Mom was resting comfortably. She could hear me and responded but her eyes remained closed. I kissed her forehead, told her I loved her, and played some Jimmy Roselli off my phone.

She passed the next morning, peacefully, without pain.

Antoinette Monte was born November 2, 1917 in Brooklyn NY. Her parents, John and Olympia Gentile, were from Trapani, a seacoast town in northwestern Sicily. She was one of ten brothers and sisters: Morris, Jack, Joseph, Rosie, Antoinette and Mary, and she is survived by Eleanor, Mathilda, Gloria and Arthur. Family gatherings of the Gentiles, annual Summer picnics at Belmont Lake State Park, were very large affairs: 20 Aunts and Uncles and 34 cousins engaged in antic filled round robin softball games, played cards and ate some great food beginning with eggs and bacon for breakfast over an open fire and ending with a great dinner.

Ann met and fell in love with Michael S. Monte at an early age. Mike Monte was the son of Salvatore and Pauline Monte, who were from Calatafimi, a mountain town also in northwestern Sicily. Their four children (Barney, Joseph, Michael and Marie) lived close to the Gentile’s in what could be described as a more rural part of Brooklyn: dirt roads, open fields, gardens, streams and wetlands where dominant when both families started out.

Everyone was a stone mason.

Together, Mike and Ann raised four children: Paula, Salvatore, Olympia and Michael, the only boomer. There are 19 grandchildren and their spouses and 12 great grandchildren, And the family, once principally Sicilian, is now populated with Calabrese, Napoleaton, Germans, Brits, Taiwanese, Irish, West Indians, French-American Indian, a Colombian and even a couple of Vikings...

My Mom and Dad were working people who loved life and family most of all, who laughed and ate and sang and danced as often as they could.

My Dad taught me to work hard and carry on despite the adversity, and to suffer no fools. My Mom taught me how to love and live and laugh and have fun…no matter what other people say. And to enjoy life’s malapropisms.

I will now miss them both. I love you Mom…

- Michael Monte