Santa Trama

Santina “Santa” Trama, age 89, of Pompton Lakes and formerly of Paterson and Elmwood Park, passed away on Sunday August 16, 2020.

Santa was born and raised in Gela, Italy in the region of Sicily. When she was just twelve years old, her dear mother passed away. While this was certainly a hard reality for such a young girl to experience, thankfully, Santa’s loving Godmother Lucia took Santa under her wings and helped guide her into her adult years. Santa always spoke fondly of how Lucia  showed such love and especially how she taught her to be a spectacular cook – a skill that she would use throughout her lifetime to bless her family and friends.

Santa met her husband Francesco through family ties in Italy. They married on December 26, 1948 in San Francesco Church in her hometown of Gela, Italy. Soon after their marriage brought the gift of four beautiful children – Emanuela, Giuseppe, Maria, and Vera. With her husband Francesco employed as a merchant marine, he was often gone for months at a time. Santa lovingly and enthusiastically took care of things at home embracing her role as full-time mother and homemaker.

Santa’s greatest pleasures involved anything that made her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s lives happy. Her favorite place to be was in the kitchen cooking up something delicious for them. All of her family will cherish special memories of seeing Santa cook, oftentimes humming or singing along to some Italian music that would be playing in the background. Santa’s daughter Emanuela shared this love of cooking and the two of them were always in charge of making all the meals for holiday get-togethers. A skilled seamstress, Santa’s two younger daughters, Maria and Vera, were sometimes mistaken for twins because of the beautiful matching outfits that she would hand sew for them, and thanks to those sewing skills, Santa’s children and grandchildren always had the coolest, most creative Halloween costumes. Santa also loved to crochet and make intricate needle work creations.

When Santa and Francesco’s daughter Emanuela married in 1968, it was one of the happiest days of their lives, but it was also one of the saddest. Emanuela’s new husband had dual citizenship and consequently, Santa’s dear daughter moved to the United States. In a very short span of time, Santa missed Emanuela so much that something needed to be done. Not being able to not see her, Santa, Francesco and their three younger children moved to the United States to be near Emanuela. Settling originally in Paterson, after some time the family moved to 50 Newark Ave in Wayne, then back to a three family home all shared by family at 1020 East 24th Street in Paterson, and finally to 135A River Drive in Elmwood Park. Santa remained in Elmwood Park for many years, recently moving in with her daughter Maria in Pompton Lakes in 2018.

Santa and Francesco enjoyed travels to Argentina, Canada, Florida and, of course, back to see family in Italy. Always happy to care for her grandchildren while their parents were at work, Santa’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren will always have wonderful memories of just spending time with their loving “Nonna” and “Bisnonna” doing simple but memorable things like getting ice cream from the ice cream truck that would ring its bell as it drove by their house.

A real spitfire with a wicked sense of humor, Santa was truly outgoing and adored by family, friends and neighbors. Her generosity overflowed from her heart and she would gladly share her time, talents and treasures to help anyone in need. As the saying goes, she’d give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. She will be missed for all these qualities but mostly for that great sense of humor. Even as she spent her final day in the hospital and while waiting for test results, she woke up at 1:00 AM in the morning and started asking her daughter Vera the following questions; ”Do I have COVID? Do I have cancer?” Vera answered “No”. After Vera explained to her mom what the doctors had found Santa dry-wittingly responded, “After all these years, that’s what I get?” And then she concluded “As the old Italian saying goes, a bad seed never dies.”      

Santa was the beloved wife of Francesco, blessed in marriage for 62 years until his passing in 2010. She was the loving mother of the late Emanuela Minardi (2009), Giuseppe “Joe” Trama and wife Daniela of League City, Texas, Maria Ferrigno of Pompton Lakes, and Vera De Frances and late husband Stephen (2014) of Mendham; cherished grandmother of: Neil Minardi and wife Marybeth, Anna Batelli and husband Enrico, Melissa De Frances and husband Derek Disbrow, Stephen De Frances and wife Lauren, Danielle Kornitzer and husband David, Alexander De Frances, and Alexa Trama; adoring great-grandmother of: Gregory, Patrick, Kevin, Nicholas, Gabriella, and Sullivan; and dear sister of the late Joseph Carnevale and Angela Vinci of Sicily, Italy. She is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.  

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memorial Processing, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959, or online at www.stjude.org, would be appreciated.