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Submitted: 5/21/23 • Approved: 5/22/23 • Last Updated: 5/25/23 • R275083-G275083-S3
Theresa E. Raffoul
July 24, 1959 - October 3, 2016
Theresa E. Raffoul, 57, of Sioux Falls, SD died Monday, October 3, 2016 at Sanford/USD Medical Center.
Family present visitation will be from 2:00 – 4:00 pm Sunday, October 9, at Miller Funeral Home-Downtown, 507 S. Main Ave.
Funeral service will be 10:30 am Monday, October 10, at Miller Funeral Home-Downtown with interment at Woodlawn Cemetery.
Theresa Eleanor Raffoul, daughter of Mike Raffoul and Souad Helu, was born in Detroit, Michigan on July 24, 1959. As a young girl, the family moved to Beirut, Lebanon. While in Beirut, she grew up in the mountains, and loved to tell the stories of her upbringing.
As a teenager, Theresa’s family returned to the United States, due to the civil wars that had consumed Beirut. Upon returning, Theresa faced many challenges despite knowing Arabic and French, she recognized her English skills were not very strong.
Many years later, she moved to California where her sister, Gloria lived on Stamey Road. It is there where she would meet her best friend and soulmate, Thomas Reardon. This was also where she would meet her future nieces and nephews, David and Becky.
From early in her life, Theresa had felt a motherly bond with the children next door to their house on Stamey Road. A bond that would stretch nearly 30 years and into David and Becky’s own children’s lives.
Theresa and Tom were blessed with two children, Brian and Sarah. Due to the unhealthy urban setting, Theresa moved from Whittier, CA to South Bend, IN where they lived for the next 14 years until her soulmate, Thomas passed away in 2008. At which time, they moved to Sioux Falls, SD to be closer to Thomas’s family whom they had met on Stamey Road. In Sioux Falls, Theresa found a great deal of solace and joy being surrounded by her nieces and nephews. She was like a grandmother to her great niece and nephew, Lovella and Trenton.
Theresa loved to use her free time doing a variety of arts and crafts as well as shopping. Over the past several months Theresa’s health and quality of life had been greatly diminished. She had been horrified at the thought of spending the rest of her life in a bed in the hospital or nursing home. On Monday, October 3, 2016 Theresa fell into a deep sleep and passed away at 12:22 pm.
Grateful for having shared her life are her children, Brian (Tuyat) Reardon and Sarah Raffoul-Reardon, of Sioux Falls, SD; her siblings, Mike (Marilyn) Raffoul, Paul (Pauline) Raffoul, Gloria (Candy) Aguilera and Charlie (Susie) Raffoul; as well as all of the noumerous nieces and nephews whom she loved and adored as her own.
Section 7th add on
NOTE: Thomas is not on the wood lawn record burial list, he may be buried some place else, unable to locate. His memorial is listed as a cenotaph
Contributed on 5/21/23 by 9katz
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Record #: 275083