Bosiljka Marinov

Bosiljka Matija Marinov passed peacefully in San Pedro, California on January 6, 2021 at 94 years of age. Known as Bosa to her friends (and her daughter and grandchildren when they really needed to get her attention), she is preceded in death by her husband Sam, and her siblings Boris, Marija, Miljenko, and Ljubo. And if you've been able to read this far without any trouble, you're probably Croatian. She is survived by her daughter Maria (Ron) Roemer; granddaughters Marisa (Ryan Gattis) Roemer and Kristina (Weston) Robba; her angel great-grandchildren Jack, Gia, and Josie; her nieces and nephew Annette (John) Gerringer, and John and Betty Mirkovich, and many loved friends and family members here and in Europe.

Bosa was born in the village of Velirat on the Island of Dugi Otok, Croatia in 1926. During World War II she helped hide her brother and cousins after the men escaped from a fascist concentration camp, and aided their flight from the country. She and her generation hardly ever spoke of this time, or really any challenges they faced, so every story that we were allowed to hear is treasured. She immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island in 1952, and joined her husband Sam, a fisherman who had immigrated years earlier, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Here daughter Maria was born. They eventually moved to San Pedro, California, but returned to their beloved Bainbridge every summer while Sam fished up North. Bosa worked at Honeywell for 25 years until her retirement.

She worked tremendously hard all of her life and she seemed to have inexhaustible stores of energy, as well as cotton bath towelsshe must have had 100and jugs of wine. There are certainly worse things to hoard. Even when she decided to stop driving ("Oh dear, was she too frail? Too old?" you ask. Nope. She was like 65 at the time. She just decided she wanted us to drive her around from then on.) She would still walk all over San Pedro to do her errands. It was very common to hear people around town say, "I saw your Nana walking up 19th Street." Bosa also had this same unrelenting work ethic at home. She'd clean your whole house and scrub the bottoms of pots until they shone, which sounds fantastic, but she'd also do it while telling you how bad you were at doing it, and how you could do it better. And probably also yell at you because you were walking around barefoot, which would of course kill you. Food was a vital part of her life with her family.

She was an amazing baker, with absolutely zero patience for teaching anyone, which is why our recipe for her Easter Bread looks more like a flow chart and contains the verbatim instructions, "Call Gold Medal Flour customer service and tell them that the flour isn't the same as it used to be. Complain until they send you a coupon." She loved coupons. Bosa also loved having her family over for dinner, and every night she would have a glass of ros‚ wine, poured carefully from one of the hoarded jugs. She also kept an unusually large assortment of kitchen knives stashed in various locations throughout her apartment, but we didn't ask too many questions about that. Her recipes, her cooking, her cleaning, her hard work, this was how she showed her love. We'll feel it every time now that we bake her bread or try to figure out just how she made hrustula so impossibly thin and delicate. Every time we rewash a glass that just came out of the dishwasher because it's too spotted.

Bosa was a generous, faithful, stubborn, surprisingly funny, and deceptively strong woman who worried about everything. But that was another way she showed she loved us, and she is greatly missed. We would like to sincerely thank the dear Sisters and staff of The Little Sisters of the Poor, where she spent some of the best years of her life, and where she was proud to be a member of the Association Jeanne Jugan. Bosa loved volunteering, saying the rosary, and telling people what to do, so it really was the perfect place for her. And once she needed their care, she was in the best hands imaginable.

Due to the recent pandemic, a private service for Bosa was held. Donations may made be made to The Little Sisters of the Poor in her memory.