About once a year, even though they live in Ohio only 45 miles from each other in North Olmsted and Tallmadge, Jerry Loss, Class of 1955, and John Olesky, Class of 1950, have a reunion. Their mothers were sisters who came from Italy to America as young children.

Tuesday, October 11 was one of those days. Jerry and Elaine drove south from North Olmsted and John drove north from Tallmadge to meet in a Hudson restaurant.

Last year a visit to a nearby funeral home gave John and Paula Tucker a chance to visit Jerry and Elaine in a North Oldsted restaurant.

Other reunions took place in the Brunswick home of John’s daughter, Monnie Ann, or poolside at John’s previous home in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Jerry grew up with his late brother, Robert Loss, on the Mill Fall farm of their parents, Frank and Gezala Futten Loss. Gezala came from Pellizzano, Italy to America in 1920 with John’s mother, Lena Futten Olesky, along with their brother, the late Si Futten, who was a long-time Fairmont barber. They were 7, 9 and 10 years old.

Their mother, Maria Fedrigon Futten, couldn’t speak English but went from Pellizzano to Genoa, Italy where she got on The Queen of Italy ship with her three young children, went through Ellis Island immigration, took a train from New York City to Clarksburg and then got on a bus from Clarksburg to Swisher Hill, West Virginia, an incorporated wide place in the road. She just showed a note that said “Swisher Hill, West Virginia” as they made her way by boat, train and bus to her husband, Severino Futten, who came over a few years earlier (and then World War I kept the family apart).

My Nona’s (Maria) brave and intimidating journey has been repeated many times over by immigrants from many countries who came to America for a better life for themselves and, more importantly to them, for their children. They were part of the “poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to be free,” as it is emblazoned at the base of the Statue of Liberty. It is this amalgamation of people from many lands and languages that makes America the most amazing and unique democracy in the world.

Jerry and John have survived a toe infection, knee replacements, hip replacements, gall bladder removal and Pacemaker insertions into their bodies.

The latest reunion was so much fun that they spent nearly three hours in the Hudson restaurant, which was mostly empty between lunch and dinner arrivals, just talking about the days on the Mill Fall farm amid the chickens and cows and a rare deer sighting and splashing in a tiny creek that ran alongside the Loss farm. John’s sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville, also took part in the Mill Fall gatherings.

If you want to contact Jerry,  his address is:

Jerry Loss

23560 Sharon Drive
North Olmsted, OH  44070

Phone: (440) 777-0183.