Maria Marinaro, 87, seamstress and cook

IF YOU WERE fortunate enough to be dining at Maria Marinaro's home, you'd better have seconds. Otherwise, Maria would have been offended.

"What's the matter?" she would demand. "You no like the food?"

Maria Marinaro was an Italian cook of the old school - only fresh ingredients, everything made from scratch and, of course, there was no such thing as following somebody else's recipe. She made her own.

Family members who sought to replicate her preparations would watch her carefully, studying how she measured - or more likely didn't measure - ingredients.

But no matter how others tried, whatever they attempted just didn't taste the same as when Maria made it.

Maria "Mary" Marinaro, who was born Maria Candiloro in Calabria, Italy, a popular figure in her South Philadelphia neighborhood, a skilled seamstress, amazing cook and loving family matriarch, died Nov. 14. She was 87 and was living in an assisted-living facility in Voorhees, N.J., but had lived for nearly 50 years in the neighborhood around 12th and Ritner in South Philadelphia.

Maria had a number of health issues over the years, including hip and knee replacements, but she never complained and didn't let her physical problems interfere with her life. She refused to get into a wheelchair, but would use a walker on occasion.

"She was a strong woman," said granddaughter Lisa Passehl. "She never stopped going."

"Maria was a kind and generous person, always putting others before herself," her family said in a tribute. "Wherever she went, she quickly made friends, and could always find a way to make you laugh."

Maria married the late Franco Marinaro in Italy in 1948. They came to the U.S. in 1951 and settled in Philadelphia. Her husband was a butcher who worked for Dietz & Watson for many years, and later at a butcher shop in the Italian Market. He died in May 2006.

Maria worked as a seamstress for the former Deluca Tailor Shop through the late 1970s. Skilled with needle and thread, she did all the alterations and repairs to garments in the family.

"She was always grateful to be asked to do something," said her granddaughter. "We didn't think about going to a tailor shop with Grandmom around."

Maria was a fan of the TV chef Emeril Lagasse, and, for some reason, liked to keep up with the Kardashian sisters.

One of Maria's traditions was preparing the "Feast of the Seven Fishes," of Italian origin, on Christmas Eve. It is a meal of seven different kinds of fish (although the number can vary) to await the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. Many of the children in attendance didn't like fish, and so Grandmom would prepare an Italian dish for them.

"It was her joy to see people enjoying her food," her granddaughter said. "To know Grandmom was to love her."

She is survived by a daughter, Maryann Mollica; four other grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. She was predeceased by a son, Joseph Marinaro.

Services: Funeral Mass 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Church of St. Isaac Jogues, 349 Evesboro Medford Road, Marlton, N.J. Friends may call at 10:30 a.m. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, Cherry Hill, N.J.