Geraldine (Dias) Medeiros White

Geraldine (Geri) Dias Medeiros White

What can I tell you about this fun-loving, wonderful woman that most of you don’t already know? She has touched so many lives throughout her years that I have no idea where to begin. I guess at the beginning….

Her story started something like this.

A Fall River native, she was born and raised on 18th Street. She attended Durfee High School in it’s original location in the city, where she met her first husband, Donald F. Medeiros. They married shortly after graduation and moved to Flint Street where they opened the original Flint TV. This is where they had both their children, Donna L. Medeiros and Donald J. Medeiros. Over the years, they spent a good amount of their summers on Watuppa Lake at the East End Sportsman Club, that eventually they built a year-round home further North of the Club’s location on the lake. There is where they established their snowmobile sales and repair business and the local snowmobile club, Bristol County Snow Riders. Not long after, Geri had become a widow at the young age of 39. She worked in numerous establishments in the city as a waitress, bartender and hostess. She would reminisce mostly about Buddy’s and The Rocking Horse Tavern, obviously her favorite places, and it’s where she eventually met her husband, Hilary F. White. Their union brought her step-daughters,  Elizabeth White (Sandoe) and Julie White (Lenaghan), into her life. During their 19 years of marriage, they traveled all over, especially when they were moving their daughters around the U.S.

In the last chapter of her life, she was once again widowed, but her family had grown into 2 son-in-laws, 1 daughter-in-law, 8 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Geri was a fiercely independent, strong woman and quite the social butterfly. She would go on outings with her childhood school friends once a month, travel with girlfriends to various places around the country and she always made a point of stopping to talk to everyone she saw while walking her dog, Iris. Even though in the last 2 years her health had declined, she always kept that fun-loving spirit. She actually started a wheelchair Congo line with her grandchildren down the halls of a rehabilitation facility. She was later able to make a significant recovery that she returned to her home on the lake, where she spent the rest of her life. On Monday, March 21st, she had passed with her family surrounding and loving her. She would not have wanted it any other way.

There will be a Celebration of Life in early summer in which invitations will be sent out for the unveiling of the Neighborhood Library dedicated to Geraldine Dias Medeiros White.