Iolanda "Teresa" Maria (Iuliano) Madia

Schenectady - Iolanda (Teresa) Madia, age 84, entered into eternal peace on October 8, 2022. She is now celebrating a reunion with her husband Angelo, her son Dominick, and her parents who had predeceased her. Born in Pianopoli Catanzaro, Calabria, Italy on October 28, 1937, Iolanda was the daughter of Domenico and Francesca Iuliano. She married the love of her life, Angelo Madia, and were married 60 years. Iolanda immigrated to the United States at the end of 1966 with her three children to join her husband who had come earlier in the year. They settled in Schenectady and enlarged their family and had one more child. Iolanda was a homemaker and family was her top priority. She was an amazing cook as was evident at the many Sunday dinners with her family. She made everything with love. Her children and grandchildren couldn't rave enough about her tomato sauce, stuffed eggplant, lasagna, her amazing vrascioli, and all of the other Italian specialities which are too numerous to mention. Iolanda loved to garden and cook with her fresh ingredients. She truly had a green thumb when it came to growing vegetables or flowers. Ironically, there were never enough vegetables in the family garden so her and Angelo would travel to local farms to pick tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant for canning and pickling. When the vegetable season was done in the fall, she would make grape jelly from the grape vines in the backyard. She also enjoyed eating the figs from the two fig trees that were in the garden. As time went on, she always enjoyed babysitting for her grandchildren. After Angelo retired, they enjoyed traveling to Italy to visit family, taking cruises to Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean with their friends and family. Iolanda is survived by her three children, Frank (Diane) Madia, Connie (Tom) Carrigan and Mario (Charlene) Madia. She is also survived by nine grandchildren, Nicholas, Christopher (Jennifer) and Jonathan Madia, Kristina Bottieri, Thomas Carrigan, Brendon & Kayley Madia, Aubrielle and Maddison Madia along with six great grandchildren and her siblings Frank Iuliano (Florida), sisters Francesca Mascaro and Angelina (Antonio) Palmieri of Italy and sister-in-law Josephine (Bruce) McQueen, brother-in-law Kelly (Linda) Madia as well as many nieces and nephews. Besides her parents, Iolanda was predeceased by her husband Angelo and her son Dominick. A visitation will take place on Friday from 9:15-10:15am at DeMarco-Stone Funeral Home, 1605 Helderberg Ave., Rotterdam. A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 11am at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 1255 Pleasant St., Schenectady. Entombment will follow at Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Iolanda's name to the American Parkinson Disease Association. Iolanda's family would like to thank the special nurses and aides at the Schenectady Center for her care.