Kathryne Ryan Aragona

WESTERLO — Kathryne Ryan Aragona, an avid crocheter and parent figure with a sweet tooth, died on Thursday, June 25, 2015. She was 70.

Mrs. Aragona “entered Heaven’s gates to dance with the angels,” her sister, JoAnne VanAlstyne, wrote in a tribute. “Kathy would like to let you know her work here is done; she received an offer she can’t refuse, an appointment from which she will not be returning. She will enter a wonderful place where she will be at peace reading, singing (hopefully, in tune), watching old movies, crocheting, mastering word puzzles, reading to her heart’s content. She is sure to find a yard sale, or two.”

Mrs. Aragona was born to Joseph and Evelyn Ryan. She wedded her childhood sweetheart, Paul A. Aragona Jr., and they were married for 47 years. The couple had two children, Eve Aragona and Paul A. Aragona III.

“Do not be sad,” Mrs. VanAlstyne wrote to those who mourn her sister. “Keep her spirit close in your heart and remember her smile; her warmth; her generosity; her quirky stories; her endless supply of crocheted blankets; her support of homeless animals; and her love for life, family, and friends.”

Mrs. Aragona was 18 years older than her sister, JoAnne VanAlstyne; their parents died young.

“She was an adult figure for my mom,” said Mrs. Aragona’s niece, Danielle Crawley. “In a way, she was kind of like a grandmother to us.”

Mrs. Aragona kept a large number of television trays and served family dinners in her living room, rather than in her smaller kitchen, Ms. Crawley said.

“We’d go to her house for Thanksgiving. She loved cooking for everybody,” she said. “She had enough of those trays she’d bring them in so we all got to sit together.”

Ms. Crawley and her sisters fondly remember Mrs. Aragona’s quirks.

“She used to have drawers stashed with candy that she was hiding from my uncle,” said her niece, Katrina Lee. “When she went to the hospital, we had to raid the house and get rid of her stashes” because of difficulties it caused Mrs. Aragona’s diabetes, Ms. Lee said.

“She used to crochet blankets. That was our gift almost every year,” she said. Mrs. Aragona also used to give the girls items from Avon, Ms. Lee remembered.

“At Thanksgiving, she was always drinking diet soda,” said Mrs. Aragona’s niece, Adrianna VanAlstyne. “She loved it.”

At a family wedding, Mrs. Aragona used an electric scooter but accidentally used the fast-movement setting instead of the slow-movement one, Ms. VanAlstyne said.

“She ran into the table and almost knocked it over,” Ms. VanAlstyne remembered. “She seemed a little surprised. She just said, ‘Whoa!’ and started laughing.”

Mrs. Aragona often wore her hair in a pony tail high atop her head, sometimes with clips underneath the pony, Ms. Crawley said.

“She loved yard sales,” she said. “We’d do family days at yard sales. She always wore a fanny pack to yard sales. That was her thing.”

Mrs. Aragona’s family teased her, too, Ms. Crawley said.

“I remember her always yelling at her son, Paul. He would play his music loud. He used to do it just to get her going. We always thought it was funny,” Ms. Crawley said.

Mrs. Aragona was hospitalized several times before she died.

“She fought pretty hard the last couple of years,” Ms. Crawley said. “Now, she can finally rest.”

Mrs. Aragona’s sister, JoAnne VanAlstyne, shared a quote of Ralph Waldo Emerson in her written tribute: “It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterward return again.”

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Kathryne Ryan Aragona is survived by her husband, Paul A. Aragona Jr.; her daughter, Eve Aragona; her son, Paul A. Aragona III and his wife, Meghan; her grandchildren, Paul and Riley; her sister, JoAnne VanAlstyne and her husband, Robert; her brother, Dennis Ryan; and many nieces and nephews.

Her parents, Joseph and Evelyn Ryan, died before her.

Funeral arrangements are by A.J. Cunningham Funeral Home. Mrs. Aragona’s family will host a private service celebrating her life at a future date. Condolences may be made at ajcunninghamfh.com.

— Jo E. Prout

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