Romilda Maria Angelica Morello Natoli tribute

Family and friends have given an emotional farewell to long time Sunshine Coast resident and family business owner, Romilda Natoli. Read the tribute.

Family, friends and the wider Sunshine Coast community have paid tribute to long-time resident and business owner Romilda Maria Angelica Morello Natoli after she passed away while battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Mrs Natoli, who died on July 29, 2022 aged 86, had been a resident on the Sunshine Coast for more than 50 years and was involved in a number of family-run fruit markets in Caloundra, Nambour and Maroochydore.

Her son Joe, Sunshine Coast division four councillor, said she was her happiest when surrounded by her family.

“Romilda was the second of four children with Costanza being the eldest followed by Dora and Benedetto,” he said.

“Mum met her husband Frank as teenagers and they got married in 1954.”

Sunshine Coast councillor Joe Natoli and his mother Romilda.

They later had five children, Maria Grazia, Bernadette, Joseph, Anthony and Max and moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1970 before owning the Tropical Fruit Market in Caloundra a year later.

Mr Natoli said her love of cooking is how she would be remembered by many.

“Mum has always loved to cook, that was her passion and she created amazing Sicilian and Italian dishes and she loved to talk to anyone in the family fruit shops who didn’t know how to cook some of the strange vegetables like eggplant, capsicum or zucchini,” he said,

“My mother will be remembered for her resilience, courage and determination to help others less fortunate than herself, but I know she would love to be remembered for her cooking and her Christmas cakes.

“I do remember when I went to college in Rockhampton and I won a decanter of Johnny Walker Scotch whisky on a stand as a trophy for being the best player at an AFL lightning carnival and so I took it home thinking I would have a plaque to put on it.

“When I came home for the Christmas holidays I noticed there were only a few drops left in my trophy bottle, I asked mum what happened to my scotch and as you might have guessed she needed it for the fruit cakes, but they were very good that year.”

Romilda (front middle) alongside her husband Frank and their four children.

Mr Natoli said she would be sorely missed.

“My mother was an incredible inspiration to me, she shaped me more than anyone else and I know that many of the traits I have come from Mum which I am grateful for,” he said.

“Her work ethic, her tenacity, her determination, her empathy, compassion and caring for those less fortunate and her ability to speak out, she never took a backward step.”

Originally published as Romilda Maria Angelica Morello Natoli tribute