Neonila Reid
Gift: Engraved Paver, Large
Inscription: Neonila (Nellie) Reid - beloved mother, dearest friend Neonila Frankiw Reid was born to Ukrainian refugees in East Germany. She survived infancy in refugee camps and thousands of miles of travel by boat with a younger sibling to settle with her mother and step-father in New Jersey and then Chicago. Neonila (known as Nellie) was forced to move to Phoenix, Arizona with her overbearing and controlling family after graduating high school, despite having already secured a job and a future with the USPS in Chicago. She loved books and pets and cooking and people, none more than her grandchildren with whom she spent the last 15 years of her life. She worked as a small business manager for Motorola for thirty years, helping to place contracts and fund work in indigenous communities around Arizona and winning an award from the governor of Arizona. Post-retirement, she started a free shoes and socks program for disadvantaged youth while working at SEARS and was a favorite face in the Target customer service area before retiring again due to complications from cancer and the 2020 pandemic.
She succumbed to cancer in 2021 in the comfort of her daughter and son-in-law's home in Tucson, AZ in the company of pets and family and is survived by her dear brother Pete. She was kind and generous to a fault, lavishing welcome and support on anyone who shared kindness with her beloveds. She was an incredible cook, making the best borscht, holupchi, and varenyky in Arizona if not the whole of the United States, maybe even the world. She left behind great and endearing love in the persons of her daughter and grandchildren, along with a massive library of at least 1400 books and almost as many movies. If you knew her, you loved her. And she probably loved you right back.