Geraldine "Gerry" Carravallah

Geraldine "Gerry" Carravallah

Visitation will take place

Monday, March 3 ,2025

2:00pm-8:00pm with Rosary 7:00pm 

Fred Wood Funeral Home

36100 Five Mile Road

Livonia, Michigan 48154

The funeral Mass will be held

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Instate 10:00am ~ Mass 10:30am 

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church

11441 Hubbard

Livonia, Michigan 48150

Geraldine Carravallah, 100, of Livonia died Sunday, February 23rd at her home, surrounded by family. Gerry was born May 17, 1924 in Detroit Michigan to Thomas and Berniece (Cieskowicz) Culton, where she grew up with her siblings, Marion, Thomas, Delores, Gertrude, Jean, Ramona, Robert, Richard, Linda and David.

Gerry is survived by her children, Robert (Camille), Judith Mueller (Robert), Michael (Catherine) Edward (Deborah), Janice Bradley (David), Mary, Jeanie Orlikowski (Julian), Raymond, Theresa Sears (Douglas), Leonard (Laura), and David (Ann-Marie), as well as 31 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.

 She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Raymond, her son James (Cecilia), her grandson Timothy, and her son-in-law Larry.

Family, of course, was first and foremost for Ray and Gerry, and she enjoyed close, nurturing relationships with all her children, and was never shy about appreciating and doting on her grandchildren who called her “Grandma” and “Nana” and great-grandchildren who knew her as “GG.” Over the decades she attended hundreds of dance recitals, T-ball games, school plays, and other special events from elementary school to college and beyond.

Most treasured were Family Reunion events, family weddings, and holiday gatherings where the Carravallah’s would congregate and celebrate together, especially in the family home where she loved to sit at the center of the dining table and be surrounded by generations of loved ones. 

She loved her home on Hathaway as it’s original owner in 1953 and residing there until her death, even throwing the house a 60th anniversary party at the suggestion of a precocious grandchild. Whether she was waiting by the front door for her paper to be delivered so she could start up on the crossword, or sitting in the kitchen listening to her beloved Frank Sinatra and drinking black coffee, or taking in a summer evening with a glass of sugared ice tea in an ice cream sundae glass, home was a place of bliss, full of memories and moments of pride. Even as her family built their own lives, many of them only a short distance away, the back porch may as well have been a revolving door for out-of-town family, retired children stopping over for breakfast, and grandkids who came over to mow the lawn and empty the cookie jar.

She was an avid churchgoer, attending mass at St. Damian’s Catholic Church in Westland from the time it opened in 1955 until the very last mass in 2016. Many of her children were enrolled in St. Damian’s school, and with her husband, she taught Pre-Cana classes for engaged couples as they prepared for their marriage. Nuns in the St. Damian directory were often the recipients of her homemade pies.  

Her sense of humor, essential with so many people to care for, persevered with her to the very end, where she doled out a few of her well-timed quips to bring a little comfort to her family, and delighted a visiting Monsignor just last week.

“I had a beautiful life,” she told her children, “And I have no regrets.”

Memorial Contributions may be made to:

AAA Pregnancy Resource Center

32080 Schoolcraft Rd, Livonia, MI 48150

Cross Catholic Outreach

PO Box 273908 | Boca Raton, Florida 33427-3908

Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit
3517 Rochester Road
Royal Oak, MI 48073

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