Parodos, Elly (Zagoras) age 97, died peacefully and surrounded by family on Thursday, April 9, 2026. Raised in Alexandria, Egypt, she learned English and trained as a shorthand typist at St. John’s Commercial College. She went on to work for British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) and Alexandria Insurance. Elly met her lifelong love, Alexandre and they married in 1955. Together they raised and cherished their tightly woven family, first immigrating to a suburb of Montreal 1963, then to Philadelphia, and later moving to Framingham, MA. She was fiercely devoted to her family.
Magic flowed from Elly’s hands. A talented seamstress and needleworker, she sewed most of her children’s clothing into their adulthood and created crocheted, knitted, and embroidered pieces that were more like artwork than textiles. She tended a massive vegetable garden that overwhelmed the house with tomatoes each year. Elly loved the ocean and never passed up an opportunity for free seafood. In the summers she could be found along the beach wrangling blue claw crabs and bluefish and gathering mussels into pillowcases. She had a radiant smile and infectious laugh.
Elly was an exceptionally resilient woman. Growing up in Egypt, she witnessed the destruction of WWII at close range, and later left the comfort of her own community to bring her family to the North America. She kept in touch with her family back home through written letters for decades. She stubbornly insisted on snow blowing the entire driveway well into her 70s and persevered through years of health challenges. Her faith supported her through difficult times.
She rejoins her late husband, Alexandre Parodos, with whom she spent 70 beautiful years; her sister, Comisa; and her brothers, Dimitris and Agapitos. Left with decades of loving memories are her children Kyriaki Stefano and Themistoclis Parodos and his wife, Maria Parodos. She cherished her role of Yiayia to Alexis Stefano, Erica Stefano-Lindemann and her husband, Jan, and Zachary Parodos. In her final years she was also loved and cared for by the staff at Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Westborough, MA.
Visitation at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, Weston on Thursday, April 16, from 10-11am followed by a service beginning at 11am. Relatives and friends kindly invited. Interment in Edgell Grove Cemetery, Framingham. Donations in Elly’s memory can be made to the St. Demetrios Church Iconography Fund at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 57 Brown Street, Weston, MA 02493 or online at www.stdemetrios.org.