Ann Marie (Gruler) Bafundo, age 87, of Franklin, Tennessee departed this world on Saturday, April 30, 2022.
She was born in the Bronx, NY in 1935 and moved with her family to Franklin in 1977.
A daughter of German immigrants, Ann was truly a product of old-world traditions and values of respect and decorum. She chose to work in the maternity ward of the hospital where she began her nursing career due to her love of babies and to help prepare her for taking care of the children she wished to have one day. She enjoyed cooking healthy meals for her family and began organic farming in her backyard in the Bronx in the 1970s before it became popular.
At Christmas time her children and grandchildren could always count on a package of organic home-baked cookies to be delivered to their homes. Ann lived her Catholic faith and taught her children to offer up any pain or disappointment that came into their lives for the poor souls in purgatory. She lived by this precept and often reminded her children that it would be of no use if they were to gain the whole world but lose their own souls.
She was predeceased by her parents, Anna and Frank Gruler, and her brother, Francis Gruler. Devoted wife of Joseph for sixty-one years. Dedicated mother of sons Philip and wife, Ellen; Michael; and Thomas and wife, Denise. Loving grandmother of Caroline, Nicholas, Matthew, Juliana, Thaddeus, and Dominic.
Also survived by sisters-in-law Maureen Gruler and Dorothea Robinson and many nieces and nephews. She graduated with honors in 1955 as a Registered Nurse from Saint John’s Hospital in Long Island City, New York. She worked there as a Registered Nurse as well as at Pelham Bay General Hospital in New York and Williamson County Hospital in Franklin. She was instrumental in establishing Corpus Christi Chapel, which brought the Tridentine Latin Mass back to Franklin.
The Latin Requiem Mass will be offered at 11:00 am Saturday, May 7, 2022 at Corpus Christi Chapel, 130 Old Liberty Pike, Franklin. Burial will follow at Williamson Memorial Gardens. Memorials may be made to the Corpus Christi Chapel Building Fund. Visitation will be 4:00-8:00 pm Friday at WILLIAMSON MEMORIAL FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICES, 3009 Columbia Ave. Franklin, TN 37064. 615-794-2289. www.williamsonmemorial.com
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