Dona M. Basel (nee Cicciollo), 75, of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, formerly of Sagamore Hills, Ohio, passed away peacefully Sunday, December 26, 2021. Beloved wife of the late Richard Basel; loving mother of Mandy (Doug Trout) Basel and Kristin (Gary) Brown; cherished daughter of Dominick Nicholas and Anne Marie (nee Kranjc) Cicciollo; dear sister of Barbara Cicciollo Kaurin; and dear aunt, great-aunt and cousin of many. What an adventurous and interesting life! Dona was born an Army brat and lived in Yonkers and Levittown, NY; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Ft. Eustis, VA; and finally in Lyndhurst, OH, in the early 1960s. She attended Regina High School in South Euclid, OH, and University of Dayton, where she met her husband Rick and earned a bachelor’s degree in English. When Mandy and Kristin were little girls she attended Kent State University and earned her Masters of Library Science. Dona worked for 12 years at The Plain Dealer as a photo and reference librarian. Later she worked at the Twinsburg Library and The Book Shelf in Northfield, OH.
Her interests were many and varied, and Rick’s generosity and love allowed her to pursue her passions. In the early 1980s she volunteered to provide emotional support to patients with AIDS; she volunteered at numerous libraries at schools and monasteries; and her biggest project being reorganizing Sinte Gleska University Library in Mission, SD, where she lived for three months in the mid 1990s. She also conducted numerous presentations about her favorite medieval mystic, Hildegard von Bingen. Throughout her entire life she knitted and crocheted, and has donated thousands of handmade items to Indian Reservations, homeless and women’s shelters, and hospitals. She loved early Hollywood history and could always be found reading biographies of Silver Screen stars. She passed along her irreverent sense of humor to her daughters.
Memorial contributions may be made in Dona's name to Menorah Park Employee Recognition Fund (where she received world-class care in her final days) (www.menorahpark.org/donate). A celebration of Dona's life will be held in March of 2022 at Johnson-Romito Funeral Home, Northfield, OH followed by a memorial service officiated by Fr. Paul M. Cabrita, SM. See www.johnsonromito.com in March for service information.
