Ramona Louise Schwartz

Ramona "Mona" Louise Schwartz was born on May 5, 1928 to Ida (Staskiel) Covaleski and Francis Covaleski in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania. She died peacefully with family at her side on February 8, 2023. True to form, Ramona remained active and engaged with others until she passed - reading, completing crossword puzzles, watching PBS and Wheel of Fortune, and visiting with family, friends, and dogs Duke and Chloe. She grew up in Atlas, Pennsylvania and graduated from Mt. Carmel High School in 1946. She attended the residential nursing program at Geisinger Hospital in Danville, PA, graduating with the Class of 1949. In 1950, she married medical resident Carl Schwartz. While Carl went to Korea for two years, Ramona enjoyed working as a nurse and exploring San Francisco. Upon Carl's return in 1953, she moved to Rochester, MN, became a full-time homemaker, and over the next 11 years created her beloved four children - Carl Michael, Pamela Louise, Amy Marie, and Antoinette ("Toni"). Ramona lived over 45 years in the southern Minnesota river valleys of St. Peter and LeSuer and supported her children's in school and after school activities, volunteered for her church, and completed college courses in art, business, and history. She found ample time for gardening, playing bridge, hosting parties, listening to music (live jazz was her favorite) and furnishing her homes with "treasures" she found while pillaging old barns and antique shops. Along the way, she developed positive relationships with neighbors and her church congregations and made lifelong friends. In 1978 and after 27 years of marriage, she became a single mother of a college age son and three teenage girls. Self-reliance meant recertification as a registered nurse (after 25 years of being out of the field), balancing work, and staying present in her children's lives. To secure work and retain stability for her children, she earned a psychiatric nursing certification, one of the first Minnesota women to do so. For the next 15 years and 5 years post-retirement, she worked for the Minnesota State Hospital in the sex offender and chemical dependency units. Colleagues admired her skills in admission evaluations, patience assessment, and problem solving (and witnessed her speed walk hallways "like a duck"). Throughout her lifetime, Ramona was a loving caretaker, was always learning, and was industrious, curious, and creative. This did not change in the last 25 years of a 95-year-old life. Her daily To-Do lists were full. She relished visiting her four children, their families, and her four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and welcomed helping others - driving others to medical appointments, repairing residents' garments, delivering homemade Amish bread, and making COVID masks. She nourished her lifelong love of travel, traveling the United States (she loved the Carolinas and Savannah, GA) and visiting other parts of the world - Scandinavia, London, Italy, and Costa Rica. She continued to give to communities she cared about - the Catholic Church, Boys Town, and Minnesota public television. She kept her mind active with reading, card playing, and crossword puzzles; her body spry with walking and water aerobics; and her soul uplifted with stimulating conversations, cribbage parties (with dessert, always!), painting, sculpting, and crafting. The Hart Boulevard Apartments - her final residential community - afforded her opportunities to attend a variety of events, make beautiful new friends, and thrive as an elder. She will be remembered as a devoted mother, loyal and fun friend, and a compassionate human being. A visitation at 10 am with a Catholic mass at 11 am and luncheon following is on Monday, May 8th at The Church of the Immaculate Conception 4030 Jackson Street NE, Columbia Heights, MN 55421. Interment at Hillside Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Twin Cities PBS in memory of Ramon L. Schwartz. She was predeceased by her parents, her siblings Theresa, John, Mary, and Stan, nephew John, and grandson Ian Michael. She is survived by her aunts Henrietta and Pearl, nieces Gretchen, Karen, Maria, Mary Arlene, Patrice, and nephew Dale, and by several grand-nieces and grand-nephews; her children and their partners: Susan Jones, Derek Hartsfield, and Adam Schwartz-Lowe; her grandchildren: Michael Patrick and wife Breann, Anthony Thomas, and Alexander Michael; and great-grandchildren: Saith, Saraya, Deena, Mikah and Noah.

Tributes

Ramona Louise Schwartz

May 5, 1928 - February 8, 2023

Tributes

Ramona Louise Schwartz

May 5, 1928 - February 8, 2023

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