Jennifer Lynn Mascola known affectionately to us as "Jenny," was born December 22, 1970 at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, California.  She was the youngest of six siblings.  Her parents Ray and Celine Summer were kind and hard-working from Illinois of Polish and Irish Catholic descent respectively.  Both of Jenny's grandfathers, Joseph Studnicki and William Nolan, died tragically when Ray and Celine were very young children.  Joseph was a factory worker and William a farmer.  Her surviving grandmothers, born Anna Sumera and Margeurete Brennan, were forced to rely upon their faith in God and their industriousness to escape the significant hardships they encountered as young widows in the hard times of the 1930s.  Their families overcame poverty and uncertainty as they raised Jenny's beautiful parents.  Jenny's father Ray was a kind and humble man whose faith was quietly exhibited in his every action.  His family came from Southeastern Poland like Pope John Paul II was from and the family had a great devotion to the Pope.  Jenny told stories of how her Dad's family was so poor that they slept in the same bed to avoid freezing to death in the bitter cold midwestern winters.  They received oranges and prayers from the Nuns that sustained them.  Ray relied upon his faith in God and family and worked very hard.  He put himself through school after serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean war.  With the help of the GI bill he became an engineer and professor at Bradley University and ventured to California after his sister Jo.  He taught at the University of California Santa Barbara and then worked in the booming aerospace industry in Manhattan Beach and El Segundo.  He worked on the Apollo mission lunar command module as a systems engineer before retiring from engineering and working as an auditor for the City of Los Angeles.  Jenny's mother Celine helped Jenny's grandmother Margeurete run the family farm in Streator after her father William died.  Celine had an infectious laugh and accompanied Ray to California where she worked as the charge nurse and manager overseeing the Emergency Department at Little Company of Mary Hospital where Jenny was born.  Jenny's family's faith in God and their toughness in sacrificing during adversity were key formative influences in Jenny's life.  Celine made sure none of the kids ever missed mass and that they knew that their surrender to the will and grace of God was the most important thing they would be given in their lives.  Ray and Celine both attended the Monday evening Novenas at Holy Trinity parish in San Pedro and were always grateful that God saw them through the many challenges they encountered through their childhood and the boom and bust of the aerospace funding cycles as adults.

Jenny's older brother Raymond served our country like his father did as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps flying C130s in combat missions in the Bosnian war and in Iraq.  He later was a pilot for American airlines and is an expert in early California colonial history and art.   Her sister Terese worked as nurse in Interventional Radiology before raising her four fine sons.  Terese took Jenny to hundreds of appointments during Jenny's illness and her kindness and faith resulted in dozens of the hospital and clinical staff knowing them by name.  Jenny's brother Barry became a physician boarded in Internal and Emergency Medicine.  He worked in urgent care in Arizona and was a tremendous support to Jenny and Anthony throughout Jenny's illness and consultations with dozens of her specialists.  Her sister Jeri is a dentist with a thriving practice in San Pedro.  Jeri's faith and constant prayers shielded Jenny's family during this challenging time.  Her brother Craig is a physician boarded in Emergency Medicine in Denver, Colorado.  He provided a loving and calm reassurance to the family throughout Jenny's illness in a manner very reminiscent of the style of his father.

Baby Jenny was born at Little Company as an RH baby and was rushed for immediate transfusion to Harbor UCLA where she was resuscitated.  That delicate little baby, the gift to her wonderful parents and siblings, was born a fighter.  She died a fighter for her children and family on Saturday June 24th, 2023 after a long bout with widely metastatic cancer.  Jenny grew up in San Pedro, attending Taper Avenue elementary school where she met the love of her life, Anthony Mascola, in third grade in Mr. Norton's class.   She recalled "smiling at that cute boy who sat across from me while we were reading."  Anthony's family was one of the early Italian Catholic families to settle in San Pedro from the island of Ischia, Italy.  His great grandfather Luigi was forced to separate from his family by poverty to enlist as a cabin boy and sail around the horn on a large sailing schooner when he was 10, jumping ship in San Pedro at the tender age of 12 in 1870.  He was baptized a devout Catholic at Chiesa dello Spirito Santo church in Ischia and he brought the patron Saint of Ischia, San Giovanni Giuseppe to San Pedro to thank God for his deliverance.  Anthony's family has a long fishing tradition and his grandfather Anthony and father Lou had the S.G. Giuseppe and Southern Queen purse seiners in San Pedro.  His Father Lou worked as a fisherman to put himself through school and now is an orthodontist with practices in San Pedro and Torrance.  Anthony's Mother born Mary Grace Imbagliazzo raised Anthony and his two brothers Mark and Alex.  Grace is active in the parishes at Mary Star and Holy Trinity and has had most of San Pedro praying for Jenny.  Anthony's grandmother Columbia Taliercio was an especially dear person to Jenny.  Faith in God and family brought Anthony and Jenny together.

Jenny and Anthony attended Holy Trinity Catholic Church and received all of their sacraments there.  Anthony recalls looking over his shoulder at masses as a boy and seeing the cute girl with the blond hair in the first row of the pews on the left hand back section of the church sitting with her family.  He smiled at her as he sat in front on the left with his family.  Jenny and Anthony went to school together from Taper elementary to Dodson Junior High and San Pedro High Schools sharing many friends and memories together.  They went to the high school prom together as sweethearts and dated thereafter as she attended Loyola Marymount University and studied finance and he studied at UCSD.

Jenny was always at the top of her class in school and always very athletic playing varsity volleyball.  She had an easy going manner and smiled and made friends with everyone she met.  She worked as a financial analyst for ZB Industries / Contessa in San Pedro, later for Sun Microsystems and Oracle in Mountain View while Anthony did his training and served on the faculty at the medical school at Stanford.  Jenny worked full time afterward in her most cherished vocation as a homemaker raising her beautiful children Alexa, Ashley and Ryan.  Jenny was created by God to be a mother.  Her precious daughter Ashley died shortly after birth and Jenny will carry her to heaven in her arms at her burial.  Jenny consistently expressed to all that her main goal in life was to guide her children and family toward Heaven.  She has been an angelic shepherd here on Earth.  She loved her family, especially her children Alexa and Ryan with all her heart and was the sweetest and most tender mother to them.  She was a constant presence in their lives volunteering for dozens of school groups, sports teams, scouting and church activities.  She was very active in the parish bible study at Santiago de Compostela before her illness.  She never wanted the latest in fashion or jewelry or cars or other worldly things.  She saw beauty and invested instead in her family and children.  She took great pride in being a homemaker recalling how much sacrifice her Mom Celine had made to support the family out of necessity when she was young and how important her mother's presence was to her.  Jenny's children Alexa and Ryan, have grown to be fine young persons as a result of the character of their mother.  Alexa is now studying at the University of Dallas after returning from studying at the Eugene Constantin Rome Campus located in Due Santi ("The Two Saints"), a historic district south of Rome that was named in honor of Saints Peter and Paul.  Ryan will be studying engineering at Cal Poly Pomona, just like his grandfather Ray did.  Ryan will focus on electrical engineering, after earning his Eagle Scout rank in Troop 604 at Santiago de Compostela Parish.  They are beautiful young persons.

We could not have been blessed by God with a better wife and mother.  We miss Jenny terribly and are so fortunate to have had her loving presence in our lives.  We are so grateful for the support and prayers from our parish and friends.  The arrangements for Jenny's services are being handled by McCormick and Son Mortuary in Laguna Hills.  There will be a Rosary held Sunday 7/9/23 from 4 to 6pm at the Mortuary lead by Deacon Dan Diesel.  The Funeral mass will be said by Father Thomas Naval on Monday 7/10/23 at 10am at Santiago de Compostela Catholic Church in Lake Forest.  Burial will be at Ascension Catholic Cemetery in Lake Forest at 11am with a reception back at the parish at 12:30.

God has been at the very center of the lives of Jenny and Anthony's families for hundreds of years guiding them each gently home through the challenges of their journeys on earth.  He is with us all now and ever shall be as we lay Jenny to her eternal rest with her daughter Ashley.

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