Georgia Funeral Care
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Edith "Diddie" Chocallo (Shoemaker) passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 22nd in Acworth, GA.
She will be deeply missed by her sister Barbara Walling (Carl), her four children Linda Shealy (Forrest), Eileen Wickett (Paul), Billy (June), Danny (Shelia) and her Indian Godson Andrew (Fatima); her 15 grandchildren Blake, Drew, Kimber, Jordan, Lauren, Daniel, Madi, Will, Anna, Megan, Dalton, Collin, Eric, Shandeepa and Christina; her eight great-grandchildren as well as her nephews Carl (Emily) and Ray.
Diddie was born in 1939 and grew up in Rockdale, Pennsylvania with her parents Ray and Beatrice Shoemaker and younger sister. She was graduated as Valedictorian of Chester High School in 1957. After graduation, she married her high school sweetheart, Bill Chocallo, and started a family with time spent in Chicago, Japan as an Air Force wife, and eventually moved to Stone Mountain, GA in 1969.
The next years were spent as a devoted Mom focused on raising her four children and caring for the family pets Topspin and Josephine. As a homemaker, Diddie was highly involved in everything from traveling to tennis tournaments, baseball games and swim meets to volunteering time as a girl scout leader and school room mother; she created a warm and comfortable home that was the house where neighborhood kids all wanted to congregate. Diddie was a trusted neighbor and friend who was known for her annual plates of Christmas fudge.
In the 1980s, Diddie had the opportunity to go to India twice as a volunteer orphan escort with Americans for International Aid (mainly airline families) and fly the newborns to their American families adopting them. During these trips, she fell in love with India and, in 1986, decided to go to nursing school to become an RN so she could be qualified to volunteer as a medical missionary.
From 1991 - 2009, Diddie lived her passion and made 13 trips to India, usually for a 3-month period, to work as a medical missionary at a Christian orphanage and school. Over the years, she helped many orphans and families in Chennai with their medical needs, visited remote villages and slums to spread the word and helped pay for hundreds of children to go to school. She adopted Andrew as her Godson and has been instrumental in his family's lives. To this day, many people in India consider her their family.
Since 2002, St. Teresa's Episcopal Church has been a haven where she found fellowship, prayer and opportunities to serve in different capacities including the vestry and pastoral care. She truly cherished the relationships she developed there over the years.
Although her last four years were more challenging, she was always the family matriarch, and we will miss her wise and vibrant presence. In her passing, we know she is well again and at peace.
A Celebration of Life Service will be held on
June 1, 2024 at 2pm at
St. Teresa's Episcopal Church
5725 Fords Rd, Acworth Georgia
with a final internment in Rockdale, PA later this summer.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Alzheimer's Association. (www.alz.org) or alternatively, to continue her mission work with impoverished families in India, to https://gofund.me/b77dccaf.
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