Vale Donata Carmela Pecoraro

Vale Donata Carmela Pecoraro: 1933 – 2024

If you have been to or lived in New Farm the last half century there’s a chance you crossed paths with Donata Pecoraro. For 56 years she called the suburb home, living at 110 Merthyr Road a third of that time. Her house opposite Coles known for its thriving red geraniums and unrivalled veggie patch.

To say Donata was part of the community would be underselling it. Every morning and afternoon she strolled around her beloved neighbourhood, or the ring road at New Farm Park with her friends, and her wardrobe is full of Bridge to Brisbane t-shirts after competing in the race annually from its 1997 inception.

Donata moved to Australia from her native Colliano, Italy at 26 years of age to join her husband Francesco and gained her first job here after just two days. The couple made a life for themselves first at Bulimba before moving to New Farm to raise their children Rosa, Gino, Linda and Tony. It was with these little ones in hand she arrived at Palm Lodge Aged Care in the 1970s asking for a job and they gave her one until she retired 30 years later aged 68.

To move to an unknown country with no connections one must be strong but eldest daughter Rosa says strength was a pillar of her mother’s character, “She even went back to work after a six-month hospital stay in 1985, she had an open wound but she was so driven to provide for us.”

In retirement Donata was happiest tending to her garden and force feeding her large family, which now includes 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Anyone who dared declare they weren’t hungry in her kitchen were met with, “Why you don’t lika my food?”

And those bright red geraniums which were so admired? Donata regularly shared cuttings with pleading passersby so it’s suspected they live on brightly across Brisbane, the 91 year old’s legacy sown into the soil of this city.

Donata Pecoraro

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