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Veronica "Vera" ElAttrache grew up in big cities. So moving to little Mt. Pleasant was a shock to the system -- one she embraced with open arms.

"She was always a big-city lady so she just dove into everything she could," Robin Gallagher said of her mother. "I don't think she ever got used to it, but she sure made an impact."

Veronica "Vera" (Doneit) ElAttrache, 70, of Mt. Pleasant, died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005, after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer.

She was born March 13, 1935, in New York City, a daughter of the late Johannes and Helene Kuemmel Doneit, who emigrated from Germany.

She grew up mostly in New York but later moved with her family to Chicago.

She entered nursing school at the now-Northwestern University Hospital, where she met her future husband, Dr. Selim ElAttrache.

They married in 1958 and moved to Salt Lake City, where both worked at the Primary Children's Hospital and the Shriner's Children's Hospital.

The family moved to Mt. Pleasant in 1965 after a work opportunity came up for Dr. ElAttrache.

Mrs. ElAttrache helped her husband with his practice, raised her four children and began a life of volunteerism after the move.

"She was the neighborhood nurse," Gallagher said. "Anybody that needed an allergy shot, they came to her."

Peggy Abramowitz can attest to that. She was best friends with Mrs. ElAttrache.

"She was our own personal angel of mercy," Abramowitz said. "We turned to Vera for all of our problems when it came to anything medical."

Mrs. ElAttrache also loved spending time with her kids and their friends.

"She said she had a hell of a good time taking care of us and raising us," Neal ElAttrache said of his mother. "Summer vacation would come and she was basically the transportation for all the kids in the neighborhood. Everybody played at my house and she liked it that way. Her worst day of the year was the last day of summer vacation."

In 1973, Mrs. ElAttrache co-founded and became president of the Mt. Pleasant chapter of Meals-on-Wheels.

"She got to know the people very well," Neal ElAttrache said. "She would stay with them for awhile. She would speak with them."

Mrs. ElAttrache loved to sing. In 1978, she joined the Westmoreland Choral Society.

"She served two terms as president and she was such an asset to the organization that we created the position of general manager, so she continued as general manager and devoted just an incredible amount of time and energy to that organization," said Marvin Huls, music director.

Even as Mrs. ElAttrache struggled with ovarian cancer, the soprano returned to the choral society to perform in concerts.

"She said God had given her this life, and she wanted him to know she appreciated it by squeezing every minute out of it," Gallagher said. "She basically wanted to go out sliding into home."

Mrs. ElAttrache spoke at fund-raising benefits to help raise money for the research her Los Angeles oncologist, Dr. Robin Farias-Eisner, is conducting.

"She lived a selfless life," Gallagher said. "She always put others ahead of herself."

In addition to her husband, Mrs. ElAttrache is survived by sons, Neal ElAttrache, his wife, Tricia, and their children, Nicole, Natalie and Eva, of Los Angeles; Reid ElAttrache, his wife, Becky, and their children, Reid and Teddy, of Peters Township; Dean ElAttrache, of Virginia Beach, Va.; and daughter Robin Gallagher and her husband, Patrick, of Sewickley Heights. She is also survived by her sister, Jeanette Kraus, of Brookfield, Wis.

The family will receive visitors from noon to 8 p.m. Friday at the Brooks Funeral Home, 406 E. Washington St., Mt. Pleasant. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 246 S. Main St., Greensburg, with the Rev. E. Allen Scanlon officiating.

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