Therese Marie (Wydick) Calaluca, age 93, passed away on September 3, 2022, in Leesburg, Virginia. She had been in hospice care since August 2022. Therese was born in 1929 in Detroit, Michigan, the third child of four of George Michael Wydick and Sophie (Dido) Wydick. Therese was an engaged student throughout her youth, earning high marks from an early age. She attended St. Stephen's and then St. Casimir High School in Detroit, graduating in 1947. She took a streetcar each day to school, and she enjoyed being a member of her school and church choir. Her love of music lasted until her final days. In 1947, Therese was awarded an academic merit scholarship to the University of Michigan. However, Therese's mother told her the family could not take on any additional costs to support her at college , and she did not tell Therese's father about the scholarship. Being deprived of this opportunity left a mark on Therese --one she sought to assuage through a lifetime of reading, inquiry and conversation. She was proud of working as a physician's assistant in Detroit "before I stopped to marry and have six children". She was a physician's assistant again, in the 1980s, when all her children had grown. She married Aleo (Alex) Mario Calaluca in 1951 and they remained devoted until his passing in 2006. In 1968 the family relocated to Potomac, Maryland, when Alex took a position with the Department of Transportation in Washington DC. The family subsequently made several moves between suburban Washington DC and Central Texas from 1973 to 2006. After she was widowed in 2006, she accepted Brian and Twila Calaluca' s kind invitation to live with them in Burleson, Texas. Later, in 2011, she moved to Leesburg, Virginia, living with her son Eric, his wife Samantha, and their newborn daughter Caroline. Therese was devoted to the Roman Catholic Church from an early age, and active in church life wherever she found herself. She spoke proudly of her participation as a youth in the Sodality of St. Stephen's, which did outreach and provided additional structure for young women. Later in life, she enjoyed a long excursion to Rome, Florence, Venice, Paris and Chartres, to experience firsthand the art and architecture of European Christian history. Therese was a constant reader----fiction, nonfiction, history, politics, biography, and current events. She adored the English language itself and sought to inculcate that love to her children through puzzles, crosswords and other word games. Not surprisingly she was a formidable Scrabble player. Music was also a constant in her life. In this area too, she had a wide variety of tastes--classical calypso, popular, sacred and holiday music. However, her singular love was opera--Puccini especially, La Bohème, in particular. Most important, Therese was the best 'listener' anyone ever met. This was due in no small part to her "having so much left to learn." She was an equaling engaging and spirited storyteller. She always brought humor and subtlety and insight. Both family and strangers, over the years, came to rely upon her for good counsel and a fresh perspective. She was from her youth, and throughout her life, a thoughtful, interesting, and civilized woman. Her absence is deeply felt by all her descendants, friends and all who came to know her.

She was preceded in death by her husband Aleo Mario Calaluca (d.2006) her parents, her sister Dorothy, brother Edmund, and her first child, Mark Allen Calaluca (2022). She is survived by her sister Barbara Wydick Maloney of Florida: as well as five of her six children; Margaret, Brian, Curtis, Eric and Christopher. She is also survived by seven grandchildren: Alyssa, Audrey, Benjamin, Caroline, James, Savanah and Tommy , along with numerous nephews, nieces and supportive daughters-in-law.

A requiem Mass will be held for her intentions on Friday, September 9, 2022, at 2:30 pm, at St. Teresa Catholic Church in Ashburn, Virginia. A graveside service is planned for her interment at a later date at Our Lady of The Rosary Cemetery in Georgetown, Texas.