Lorraine Rollandi
03/14/1928 - 05/17/2025
Lorraine, known as "Ori" was too extraordinary to put into words. Her beautiful smile lit up a room. She had a gift of making others feel loved and valued. A light in all of our lives, Lorraine lived her life by giving endlessly, loving deeply, and inspiring all those around her to feel grace, gratitude and joy.
Lorraine was brilliant and hilarious, she had a gift of creative wit! She was a lover of books and opened people's hearts to the imaginative worlds of different stories and characters. Lorraine was an incredible cook, loved family, friends, great conversations, music, dancing, adventures, and playing tennis!!
Lorraine was a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, mother and grandmother like no other. She had this enormous capacity to give unselfishly and unconditionally. She had the unique ability to open her heart to people and embrace them with love. Lorraine's motto was "more love just means more love"!
Lorraine left this world on May 17 shortly after her 97th birthday in her home surrounded by love. She was a San Francisco native, born to Swiss Italian parents Lawrence and Pauline DeFanti, and beloved sister to Enes. As a young woman Lorraine attended St. Paul's high school and went on to Berkeley University where she discovered her passion for literature. Lorraine continued her love of books by working as a librarian at Millbrae library for a good part of her life. Yet, her greatest achievement, passion and joy was being a mom and grandma.
She met Carl, the love of her life in her early 20s, their love story was magic and they were married for almost 65 years before he passed in 2019. They adopted and lovingly raised two daughters, Joanie and Lori. Later, Lorraine was beyond ecstatic to be a "Nonnie" to her grandchildren Kevin and Ryan! She adored them and lit up when they walked into the room! She loved her family more than anything and always put them first.
Lorraine was a faithful member of Our Lady of Angels parish for over 50 years, living her deep faith by acts of service. She was a Eucharistic minister, brought meals and food to those in need, drove sick people to their doctor's appts, volunteered for St. Vincent de Paul, was involved in marriage encounter retreat groups with Carl, among many other things! Lorraine also took an active leadership role for over 75 years with the Italian Catholic Federation and won awards for her dedication and involvement.
Throughout her entire life Lorraine was compassionate, kind, inquisitive, and asked daily how everyone was. Even when her health declined she would wake up and ask her caretakers how they were feeling and if they had a good nights sleep!
The void in all of our lives without Lorraine is indescribable. She will live on in the hearts of everyone who loves her. Her unconditional love, her intense joy, her unbelievable sense of humor will continue to inspire us daily.
We will honor Lorraine by living our lives with passion, grace, humility, gratitude, humor and joy. She taught us so much. Put family first! Be present! Be grateful! Love deeply! Never leave anything left unsaid!
Her celebration of life is Friday, June 6 at Our Lady of Angeles Catholic church in Burlingame 1:00 Mass with Father Michael Mahoney.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Friends of Millbrae Library to continue fostering Lorraine's love of reading for generations to come.