Obituary
In the care of Solemn OaksAdela Marchetti, 92, of Fremont, died Sunday, September 6, 2026, at Newaygo County Medical Care Facility in White Cloud, in the first week of the tomato harvest, which she had not missed in eighty years.
She was born Adela Bertolini on June 11, 1934, in Fremont, the youngest of six, to parents who came from Emilia-Romagna with one trunk and a plan to farm. She married Silvio Marchetti in 1955 in a wedding her mother catered herself, and the two of them raised five children in the tall house on Hillcrest with a garden that ran all the way to the back fence and then, when the neighbor allowed it, a little past.
She canned. Tomatoes, peppers, peaches, beans, and a giardiniera that people asked after by name. She kept a cellar shelf that ran the length of the wall, and the rule of the house was that no one left with empty hands — not the mailman, not the priest, not a grandchild going back to school. She fed the whole parish at three funerals a year for four decades and never let anyone see the bill.
She was a fixture at Saint Brigid, a fierce and unrepentant briscola player, and the family's only reliable source on who was related to whom and how. Her English kept a trace of the kitchen she learned it in. She thought that was funny. She thought a great many things were funny.
Mass will be said Friday. Come hungry; the family has been given instructions.
She is survived by her children, Silvio Jr. (Denise) Marchetti of Fremont, Rosa Kanaar of Grand Rapids, Paulo (Amy) Marchetti of Newaygo, and Teresa Marchetti of Fremont; sixteen grandchildren; twenty-two great-grandchildren; and her sister, Lucia Bertolini of Illinois.
She was preceded in death by her husband of sixty-one years, Silvio; her daughter, Gianna; and her brothers, Marco, Aldo, and Pietro.