Elisa Christine Schrifl-Falcione

Elisa Christine Schrifl-Falcione, a longtime resident of Sharon, died at home on January 16, 2016. During her 96 year lifetime Elisa experienced many historical, political and cultural changes that would affect her own lifestyle and outlook on life. Born as the only child to Alois and Emma (Pohl) Schrifl in Corbach-Waldeck, Germany, Elisa spent her youth on the family estate in Wimpassing, Austria, where her aunt taught her to run the estate. As for so many people of that time period, the second World War drastically changed her future. Elisa survived the loss of some of her immediate family members and the unimaginable horrors of the war. She trained in Vienna in some of the top hotels to learn the hotel business.

In 1950 Elisa came to the U.S. to work as a nanny in Tennessee and eventually became a nutritionist at the Vanderbilt Hospital. When she came to Boston to earn her fare back to Austria she made her living as a waitress at the Howard Johnson and Anthony's Pier 4 restaurants. Working for the Red Coach Grill she soon became the go-to person for opening up new restaurants in new locations all over the U.S.

During those years she met her future husband, Guy V. Falcione and they were married in 1955 in Boston. Receiving her American Citizenship in 1958 put her life into a new perspective. Guy and Elisa bought their house in Sharon, MA in 1959 and with that a happier chapter of her life started. She created a park-like setting on her property with stone walls, a flower and vegetable garden that produced amazing crops every summer, which she happily shared with her friends and neighbors.

She joined the Sharon Garden Club, the Historical Society, the Friends of the Library, the Boston Symphony and the Appalachian Mountain Club. She actively participated in many of the civic beautification projects in Sharon thru the initiative of the Sharon Garden Club and her consistent participation earned her much recognition and many awards from the Town of Sharon. Beside her love for classical music and opera, history was her passion and she always tried to teach her friends the importance of the political and historic events of the past and present and how they would affect our daily lives.

In 1968 Guy and Elisa became the proud co-owners of "Alfie's Café" on Tremont Street in Boston. This ownership was cut short due to Guy's untimely death after his car accident of the Expressway. Once again Elisa's life took a drastic turn and her interest in travel became stronger. Trips to Hawaii in 1983, her 64th birthday celebration in Austria in 1984, the exciting rafting trip down the Colorado River thru the Grand Canyon in 1988 and her adventure trip to Australia in 1990, where she climbed Ayre Rock at the age of 70 marked probably her most exciting travel experiences. One of her last trips were to Sint Martin and Saba and she actually raced one of the America's Cup sailboats that had won the America's Cup in Newport, RI, in spite of her fear of getting sea sick.

Over the years Elisa had produced many pillows, bedspreads and pictures in all sizes of needlepoint that were greatly admired by everyone that visited her home. She mastered tailoring her own cloth, curtains and learned to upholster her living room furniture as well as staining her woodwork in her house. Great hospitality and outstanding baking expertise made her home always a favorite place to visit.

Elisa is survived by her great-grandnephew, Mag. Stephan Schriefl, his wife Alexandra and their children Stephanie and Christopher in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, Michael Schriefl in Tribuswinkel, Austria, her childhood friends Grete Geppert in Wien, Austria and Hildegard Stolze in Reichenau, Austria, her sister-in-law Elizabeth Falcione in Cathedral City, CA, Elizabeth's daughter Lisa Maria O'Malley in Waltham, MA, Elizabeth's sons Paul Falcione in Cathedral City, CA and Mark Falcione in La Mesa, CA, her brothers-in-law Domenic Falcione and his wife Pauline in Chelmsford, MA and Julio Falcione and his wife Patricia in Clinton, MA and their daughter Andrea Falcione in Sutton, MA and her longtime friends Shirley and Herbert Gould in Sharon, MA and Gisela Trelenberg in Stoughton, MA.

Please join us to pay tribute to an amazing life at a Memorial Service on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 12:00 Noon in the Church Sanctuary at First Congregational Church, 29 N. Main St., Sharon, MA 02067 followed by a reception from the 1-3 PM in the Parish Hall.