Brigitte B Salvati's Obituary
Brigitte Barbara (Brandt) Salvati of Trinity, Florida passed on September 24, 2024, in St. Joseph’s Hospital North Hospice care after her long, courageous battle with cancer. She was sixty.
Born December 16, 1963, to the late Karl Robert Johann Brandt of Rhinecliff, New York, and the late Renate Helene (Sloth) Cooper, owner of Renate Draperies in Hyde Park, New York.
Brigitte is survived by her loving husband of thirty-six years, Anthony “Tony” Salvati, a former teacher at Roosevelt High School, whom she married on December 22, 1988, and her two children, Anthony Alandro, 26, a scratch golfer, and Ariela Renate (Salvati) Behnken, 33, dancer, champion volleyball player, future registered nurse, her husband, Kenny of Poughkeepsie, New York, and their four children: Troy Anthony, 12, Derek Vincent, 8, Aria Renata, 7, and Aurora Elena, 3, their Oma’s much beloved grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Carl Brandt, and his wife, Marlene, of Davenport, Florida.
Brigitte was educated in the Hyde Park School District, graduating from F.D. Roosevelt High School, class of ’82. She then received an Associate’s Degree from Dutchess Community College in Medical Lab Technology in ‘84. Her medical career began early when she worked as an aide at the Hyde Park Nursing Home and later as a phlebotomist for Vassar Brothers’ Medical Center. After graduation, she quickly became the Chief Lab Tech for the Mid-Hudson Medical Group from ‘84-’92. In 1992, she became the lead technician of the Vassar Brothers’ Hospital blood bank where her skills at quickly matching blood types saved many patients in the operating room for which she received many commendations for her skill.
In 2003, her family moved to Florida, and she became the licensed head lab technician for the Urology Specialists of West Florida (later the Advanced Urology Institute) until 2018 when she became their Clinical Research Coordinator, recruiting patients for clinical studies and overseeing drug trials.
Brigitte’s interests range far and wide. An accomplished cook, she loved hostessing dinner parties and staging events for the homeowners’ association. Her Bread and Butter Pickles were a perennial first place winner at the Dutchess County Fair as were her lace doilies, embroidered Christmas ornaments, and
crocheted animals. With her green thumb, she kept no fewer than forty-five orchids in near constant bloom. She collected antique Santas, porcelain flowers, and bunnies. Her love of flowers began a hobby of preserving all the flowers she ever received over the years by drying and arranging them. Her skill at
handicapping racehorses was unmatched as was her skill at Gin Rummy. To say Brigitte was crafty would be an understatement. She had the uncanny ability of remembering the birth dates of all the people she knew and their children. Her proofreading skills detected the most esoteric violations of grammar and syntax. (I can feel her hovering over my shoulder as I pen her obit, her red pencil ablaze.)
In the end, as moonlight became her hair
And suffering became her life,
Nothing became her,
Like the leaving of it,
My brave girl, my beauty and my love.
A memorial service, a celebration of her life, will be held in the near future. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to Brigitte’s grandchildren’s Go Fund Me college fund. When Troy, Derek, Aria and Aurora graduate, Brigitte would want them to know that she was always and still is thinking of them. To donate go
to: https://gofund.me/5243ee2e
What’s your fondest memory of Brigitte?
What’s a lesson you learned from Brigitte?
Share a story where Brigitte's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Brigitte you’ll never forget.
How did Brigitte make you smile?