Marie Pauline Dufresne Mainelli died peacefully in her sleep in Woods Assisted Living of Givens Estates in Asheville, NC on Saturday evening, April 6, 2013, 11 days shy of her 96th birthday and after 9 years with Alzheimer’s dementia and congestive heart failure.
Marie Pauline (Dufresne) Mainelli was born in Topsham, ME, the only surviving child to adulthood of Marie Anna Pouliot Dufresne of Arthebasqua, Quebec, Canada, and Alexis Eustache Dufresne of Topsham, ME. She lived with her parents in Topsham and Brunswick until 1928 when the family moved to Providence, RI to locate work for her father who was a wheelwright. She graduated from Central High School in Providence in 1936, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and the Field Hockey team from which she earned a letter. She graduated from RI Hospital School of Nursing as an RN in their 3-year program in 1939. After “curing on bedrest” from tuberculosis for 18 months, she began working at Zambarano Memorial Hospital in Wallum Lake, RI where she continued as an RN till retirement in 1983. She married Domenico Antonio Mainelli on October 13.1945; they were married for 45 years till his death in 1990. In 1993 she moved to Asheville, NC, to live near her daughter and family and enjoyed living in Asheville and Givens Estates for 20 years.
She is preceded in death by her parents and her beloved husband, Domenico Antonio Mainelli. She is survived by her only child, Marie Langlois and her beloved son-in-law, John Philip Langlois, MD of Asheville, NC, her granddaughter Adrienne Nicole Langlois of Cambridge, MA and her grandson Eric Michael Domenic Langlois of Washington, DC and the family's two Westies, Sally and Rosalind.
She loved silver mints, coffee cabinets, hot dogs with relish, date bars with powdered sugar, everything Italian, dogs, NYC and DC, Cape Cod, salt water taffy ,Dunkin Donuts iced decaf mocha lattes with extra mocha and double chocolate donuts, movies, theatre, her grandchildren’s band concerts, dining out, TCBY, rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway ‘ living in NC, holiday dinners with her family, her daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren and the two Westies . She will be missed.
Many thanks to the nursing, social work , housekeeping and maintenance staff at Woods Assisted Living at Givens Estates and her CarePartners Hospice team, especially Joan Fusco, RN, Libby Lewis’ BSW, Chaplain Rev. Brenda Lewis, and Tina Stoval, her Hospice volunteer. Special thank you to Virginia Templeton, MD, her physician at MemoryCare and Tim Plaut, MD.
Her funeral will be held Saturday at 8:30am from the ANDERSON-WINFIELD Funeral Home, Route 44 at Greenville Common, Greenville. Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30am in St. Philip Church, 622 Putnam Avenue, Greenville. Burial will be private. Visitation Friday 5-7pm. In lieu of flowers please make donations in her memory to CarePartners Hospice, 68 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28803 and Givens GERCSA Fund, 100 Wesley Drive, Asheville, NC 28803.