Charlotte Mary Grunenwald

Charlotte Mary Grunenwald, 93, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 31, 2017. Charlotte was born to Andy and Mary Kushnir on January 31, 1924 in Youngstown, OH. Charlotte was a wife, mother and home maker, as well as a singer, chef, intercessor and grandmother.
As a child, her family moved from Youngstown to a farm in New Bedford, PA that adjoined the Villa Maria Convent. She told many stories about life on the farm that featured her siblings and their farm animals.
She attended Villa Maria High School where she sang in the choir and invited her future husband, Ed Grunenwald, to a dance. She helped to pay her own children’s college expenses by working in the library there and eventually lived at The Villa Maria Apartments in her retirement.
Charlotte had the gift of intercessory prayer and a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was moved by the Holy Spirit and her family is often awed by the answers her prayer received. They now have a direct connection in heaven.
Charlotte was blessed with a strong and beautiful voice. Though she sang for many years with the Youngstown Philharmonic Choir, her best performances were either at St James the Apostle during Sunday Mass or in the family home on Pulaski Road in New Bedford. Her angelic voice was distinctive in the melting pot of immigrants at St James and at home she would easily break into a Christmas carol or accompany herself on the piano for any of the tunes from The Sound of Music.
Charlotte loved her children and was the voice that encouraged them to seek and to learn. Along with her husband, Ed, she loved Christmas. Under her direction, the entire house was decorated and Liberace’s Christmas music blared from the stereo. Over the years, Christmas trees ranged from blue aluminum to heavily frocked Scotch pine with candy-colored lights. She loved to cook and often set a fancy table for holidays and family gatherings. Every summer she canned tomatoes from the garden to be served with macaroni on Fridays during Lent. She spent many years caring for her parents, Andy and Mary Kushnir in their twilight, enabling them to stay in their own home. Charlotte was kind and loving with just the right amount of crazy. She was loved by her grandchildren, some of whom called her “Nunny.”
She is survived by her children; Pat King (Novato, CA), Polly Tonti (Medina, OH), Edward Grunenwald (State College, PA), Carolyn Grunenwald (St Petersburg, FL) and Bill Grunenwald (Level Green, PA) and her sister Madeline O’Neill (Mountainview, CA), as well as 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She is preceded in death by her husband, Ed, daughter Carol, parents Andy and Mary Kushnir, her sisters Getrude Michaelson and Helen Jacobs and brother, Stephen Kushnir.
A Mass of Christian Burial will take place 9:30 a.m. Saturday November 4, 2017 at St. James the Apostle Church in New Bedford, Pa. with. Friends may call from 4:00pm-8:00pm Friday at the Cunningham-Becker Funeral Home in Poland. Charlotte will be buried beside her husband in the St James Cemetery at The Villa Maria.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests material contributions take the form of Crossroads Hospice, 3743 Boettler Oaks Drive, Uniontown, Ohio 44685 or to Villa Maria at 288 Villa Drive Room Mh 216, Villa Maria, Pa. 16155.