December 8, 1936 - June 13, 2019
It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Mario Porco. Mario was born in Apriligiano, Italy to Domenico and Fortunata Porco. Mario had four siblings, Elena, Immacolata, Gabriele and Ada. While in Italy, Mario enjoyed spending time building wooden go- carts, birding, collecting wood for festivals, swimming and fishing in the outdoors.
At the age of sixteen, Mario immigrated to Canada where he would join his father in the small towns of Natale and Michelle in the East Kootenays. Here he worked with his cousins as a hunting guide with horses, shovelled coal and helped in construction. Mario's goal was to help his family build a better life and with that in mind, they moved to Nelson where they could find more stable employment.
Mario found work first at CPR and then Kootenay Forest Products where he worked on the Pico-deck for over twenty years. When the mill closed in the 1980's, he began to work in construction and helped build the office at the Nelson airport. Not afraid of hard work and cold temperatures, Mario soon found himself working on the bridge crew with the Ministry of Transportation, Bell maintenance, SPL and retiring with VSA.
Mario's passions and hobbies were fishing, hunting and grafting trees. It wasn't unusual for him to head out for a walk in the forest where he could be at one with nature. Mario loved to fish the mountain streams where he would jump across rocks and balance along logs to get to the other side. Mario had a passion for fruit trees and was extremely skilled at grafting multiple varieties onto one tree.
Family was important to Mario, especially his younger sister Ada who he cared for up until her passing in 2012. He also enjoyed visiting with his siblings' families and playing with his many nieces and nephews. Mario was predeceased by his parents, Fortunata and Domenico, sisters Elena Maida and Ada Porco, and brother's in law Leonardo Maida and Salvatore Piro. He is survived by his sister Immacolata Piro and Gabriele (Teresa) Porco, nieces and nephews Jennifer DeLaurentiis, Virginia (Peter) Muirhead, Gioconda (Grant) Gordon, Tina (Corey) Viala, Marcello Piro, Dominic (Karissa) Porco, Rick (Tammy) Maida and Fortunata (Kyle) Niminiken, as well as great nieces and nephews, Evelina (Evan), Aimee, Lauren, Michael, Krista, Caitlyn, Gabriel and great great niece Aurella.
The family would like to thank his doctors and nurses for the care he received during the past few weeks. Funeral services are on Monday, June 24th at 10:30 am at the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate with Interment to follow in the Nelson Mausoleum.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation.