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Our Lady of the Angels (OLA) School Fire, December 1, 1958




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Michele Rose Altobell
Room Age Birthdate Grade B/G/T
211 13 6/16/45 8 Girl
Teacher
Sister Mary Helaine O'Neill, BVM
Address
3820 W Huron 
Family
Father: Leonard Altobell
Mother: Josephine (Giacalone) Altobell
Grandparents: Fanny Giacalone, and Ralph and Theresa Altobell
Great-Grandmother: Rose Taranto
Aunts and Uncles: Salvatore, Andrew, Ernest, and Frank Giacalone, John and Carmen Altobell, Rose Fosco, Lena Pisano, and Ann Trester
Cousins: Samuel and Daniel Altobell (sons of Carmen) and Nancy and Theresa Pisano (daughters of Lena) 
About Michele
 
Interred: Queen of Heaven (Hillside, IL)
Memories of Michele
This is the year 2004 - may God bless the family.
    -- (Andrea W., Neighbor)
God Bless the little angel's soul. I knew, her mother, Josephine Altobell. We worked together at Marshall Field and Company for many years. Many fond memories.
    -- (Angelo T. Manolis, Friend)
Michele Altobell is my cousin. My grandmother, Rose Fosco, was her father's sister. My mother, Florence Fosco Lipira, is living in Lombard, IL. She will be 80 in January 2009. She has other relatives, Carmen Altobell and his wife and sons, Samuel and Daniel living in River Grove, IL. Her other cousin John lives in Charlotte, NC and his brother lives in Lake Geneva, WI. I will pass this email site on to them. Thank you for this site. I was only 7 when the fire took place. Donna Lipira DeRosa.
    -- (Donna Lipira DeRosa, Cousin)
My sister, Theresa Mitchell, and I, Nancy Pisano are Michele's first cousins on her father's side. Actually, it would have been very nice if we had more memories of Michele to pass along.

At age 13 my sister Theresa remembers when our aunt, Josephine, was pregnant with Michele. I was born three years later. Since Michele lived in the city and we lived in the suburbs, we never had much time together. The last time we saw Michele was at our cousin Joan Mary's wedding the summer before Michele's passing. That's the one moment which does, and always will, stand out in my mind.

There will always be the memory of how she had grown, and how mature she seemed to me.

The night of the fire, I remember waiting at home while our mother and father went to see what they could do. It's hard to remember every detail of that night, but we will never forget that night.

My sister, Theresa, was 27 at the time, and went to the funeral. She kept one of the flowers, which we still have pressed in a book written by a survivor of the fire. That flower is 50 years old, and as you can imagine, is very fragile; just as we remember Michele.

Some day we may see her again, and she will not recognize us; but we will recognize her, because she will always be young.
    -- (Nancy Pisano, Cousin)