Jeanette Scaffidi

Jeanette Julia Scaffidi (nee Mackow), age 92, of Twinsburg, Ohio died on December 23, 2023 of congestive heart failure.

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 8, 1931 to, Michael Mackow of Burshtyn, Ukraine, and Julia Wasylyszyn, of Korostowice, Ukraine, and attended John Hay High School in Cleveland. She was the fourth of five children. All four of her siblings, Joseph Mackow, Florence “Millie” Borally, Michael “Jim” Mackow and David “Butchie”  Yarmock preceded her in death.

At age 18, Jeanette married Michael Apruzzese (died 2021) and moved to Los Angeles, California where they had three children, Cheryl Apruzzese Thompson (Ed), Joseph Michael Apruzzese and Michaela Karen Apruzzese (Larry). After they divorced, Jeanette moved back to Cleveland to be closer to her family, where she married her second husband, big band musician Rudy Scaffidi (died 2001). Married to Rudy for 28 years, she loved to travel with him on tour all over the country and on cruises abroad. After Rudy's death, Jeanette continued her love of music by going dancing at Italian clubs with her partner, Tony Cartellone (died 2023).

Jeanette traveled the world with her children and grandchildren, including trips to Budapest, Prague, Paris, London, Austria, Italy and Australia. She also went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes and participated in the healing baths. She made many trips to visit family in California and  Hawaii. When she wasn’t dancing or traveling, Jeanette babysat and worked as a supermarket food demo lady, where she enjoyed sharing food and conversation with new people, and volunteered as a tutor at a local grammar school. Jeanette was a crossword superstar with several competition titles under her belt. As technology evolved, so did she, seizing the opportunity to play (and more often than not, beat) anyone and everyone at Words with Friends on her tablet. She was a cat lady through and through, and we know she would be happy to be reunited with her beloved Mitzi, Kizzy, Qiana, Sasha and Gigi .

Jeanette will be remembered for her upbeat, positive attitude and her never-ending love and support of her children and grandchildren. We are lucky to have had such a beautiful, loving, active, and kind mother and grandmother in our lives for so long.

In addition to her children, she is survived by her grandchildren: Lauren Thompson (Alessandro ), Evan Thompson, Kristen Apruzzese, Gina Apruzzese (Ian), and Michael Apruzzese (Thalia), as well as her nieces and nephews, many grandnieces and nephews and friends and neighbors.

She is dearly missed by all.

Funeral Services 11 am Wednesday, January 3 at THE FIORITTO FUNERAL HOME, 5236 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst (East of Richmond Road) WHERE FRIENDS MAY CALL WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3 FROM 10 to 11 am. Private Interment for the family only will be at Knollwood Cemetery.

With Jeanette's family living out of state, they respectfully ask that flowers not be sent; but rather request contributions in her memory to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html?promo=ig&sc_dcm=58700008005633531&sc_cid=kwp&sc_cat=b&ds_rl=1285465&ds_rl=1291300&ds_rl=1290690&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKqsBhC3ARIsAEEjuJj3V0lfb6M9S1ZQYPRDFabRCxOVGxzeZy-9hpAIVkWDmPLjtfE2by4aAkDHEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds