Obituary of Efrem Siro Tonellato
Efren (Efrem) Tonellato, 92, of St. Catharines passed away suddenly at home on February 24, 2025. Born on January 1,1933 in Trevignano, Treviso Italy, the youngest of 8 children.
At 18, he left Italy with a change of clothes and a few dollars to emigrate to Canada. He arrived in Canada, September 1951 in search of a better life. He found employment at Girotti Machine shop in St. Catharines. He worked there for many years learning valuable skills in tool and dye and machine repair. In the late 1960's he moved to DANA Canada as a machinist. In 1996, Efrem retired from DANA and was able to spend his time on his favourite hobbies winemaking, woodworking and singing with the Club Roma choir. He was skilled at anything that needed to be done, plumbing, electrical, building houses, sheds etc. He especially liked creating things for his grandchildren and spent many hours building toys that have been enjoyed by many generations of children. He built a gas-powered go-cart from the ground up in the 70's that was the envy of the neighbourhood and later in the 90's he built an electric version tooling everything himself. These items were enjoyed not only by his grandchildren but also relatives and neighbourhood kids throughout the years.
Efrem is survived by his wife of 66 years, Milena (Morandin); his children, Joanne (Mabrouk Elgadi), Alba (Mark Kotyk), Linda, Silvio (Natalia Zvyagintseva); and his grandchildren, William (Karla) Kotyk, Sean Kotyk, Jalal Elgadi, Seja Elgadi, Sara Elgadi and Kirill Zvyagintsev; his sister-in-law, Gabriella Col and hundreds of nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces and great-great-nephews and nieces both in Italy and Canada.
He was predeceased by his parents Giuseppe and Alba (Dottori) Tonellato, his siblings and their spouses, Costantino (Rosina) Tonellato, Pierro (Ercolina) Tonellato, Ermas (Ines) Tonellato, Ellena (Armando) Pizzolatto, Imelda (Stelvio) Favotto, Lina (Remo) Leporatti and Suora Alba. His in-laws Silvio and Domenica (Andrighetti) Morandin, Max(Della) Morandin, Lino Morandin, Ugo Morandin, Guido Morandin, Elvira (Dante) Piva, Romeo Col and some nieces and nephews in both countries.
Nonno was passionate about education and self-reliance. Since he was a 10-year-old boy in Italy, he learned how to build/repair bikes, cobble shoes, and was able to fix anything at all that needed repair in his little repair shop. He turned his ability to learn into a good life in Canada for him and his family. He overcame many hardships in his life, including breast cancer. Nonno was well loved, respected and appreciated by everyone. Nonno will be missed but not forgotten. He can now rest easy without any pain and spend time with his eternal family who he has dearly missed as he was unable to make the trip to Italy often.
Efrem chose to forgo the traditional services. His family will host a Celebration of life in June (details will be shared at a future date), where family and friends can share a meal and have one last drink with him. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or the Heart & Stroke foundation.
