Obituary: Josepha “Jeppa” Ribaudo

Josepha “Jeppa” Ribaudo, B.S.R.N. lost her valiant fight against cancer on December 10, while in the excellent care of the medical team and staff at Capital Regional Medical Center as well as the Florida Cancer Specialist and Research Institute. It was also at Capital Regional Medical Center where she spent the last decades of her 60-year career as a registered nurse. 

Early in her career, Jeppa worked in and taught obstetrics at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. She treated our nation’s veterans with post-traumatic stress and other illness of mind and spirit at the Veteran’s Center in Canandaigua, N.Y. She also worked in geriatric medicine there. Jeppa worked in addiction rehabilitation in Sarasota, Florida and in home-health nursing in Bainbridge, Georgia. The last decades of her career were spent as a case manager at Capital Regional Medical Center and in the final years of her career in wound care, one of the toughest specialties for nurses. She loved her profession and being a nurse. 

Jeppa tended to her patients with the same empathy and attention to their total care no matter where their journey had taken them. Jeppa had many familiar sayings she used to pepper conversation, many from the classic movies she enjoyed. The one that taught her daughter the most was not from a movie: “There but for the Grace of God, go I.” What Jeppa meant by that is that I too could be in that person’s situation. I too could have faced that calamity, that broken path and so we should treat each person we meet with compassion and love. 

Jeppa was a bemused observer (and often secret supporter) of her granddaughters’ mischief. She was, for those granddaughters, an incredibly strong guide while being a non-judgmental and supportive listener. Jeppa enjoyed driving her well-kept classic silver Ford Mustang, She was known as “Mustang Grandma” among her granddaughters’ school friends and folks around town. Her granddaughters and their dear friends will sorely miss Grandma Jeppa. 

Jeppa was kind, patient, wise, and tough. She was an irrepressible force but at the same time she had a quiet sweetness. She had a gift to make anyone she was talking to feel like they were the most important person in the room. Jeppa understood the healing power of humor and with a well-timed phrase could make people break into hearty belly laughs. 

Jeppa earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing under the strict training of Catholic nuns who expected excellence in the application of science and compassion in all phases of nursing. Jeppa graduated from D’Youville College, in Buffalo New York in 1956. She attended Monroe High School and St. Agnes, in Rochester N.Y. 

A number of years ago, when TCC’s Ghazvini Center had its inaugural open house, Jeppa’s daughter, Michelle, brought her mother to the event. Jeppa was fascinated by the state-of-the-art training equipment and said, “I wish I was a young nursing student. I would love to be trained here!” 

Jeppa had the opportunity to work with Tallahassee Community College nurses who were indeed trained at the Ghazvini Center and spoke highly of the students and their dedicated instructors. Jeppa was a “nurse’s nurse.” She gave and demanded the highest standard of care and compassion for patients. Her respect for TCC’s nursing faculty and their students was high praise. 

While she was not happy to be a patient, Jeppa loved Capital Regional Medical Center and many of the doctors, nurses, staff, and administrators with whom she had worked and those who cared for her at the end of her life. 

With this in mind, Jeppa’s family and friends thought it fitting to honor her with an endowed scholarship in her name for TCC nursing students who train and will begin their career at Capital Regional Medical Center. 

To honor Jeppa, the nursing profession to which she dedicated her life, and to help nursing students along their journey, her family is confident that she would be pleased with any contribution to this namesake scholarship. 

Checks can be made out to out to the TCC Foundation; to earmark the donation for Jeppa’s scholarship, please note in the memo line “on behalf of the Jeppa P. Ribaudo Nursing Scholarship.” 

The Mailing address for contributions is 444 Appleyard Dr. Tallahassee, FL 32304. Donations may also be made over the phone, at 850-201-6066 (ask for Kendrah Richards), or by email (richardk@tcc.fl.edu). Donations can also be made online: https://www.tcc.fl.edu/about/college/tcc-foundation/ways-to-give/make-a-gift/#d.en.7509

Jeppa leaves her only daughter, Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda and her son-in-law Michael D. Vasilinda of Tallahassee, Florida, her granddaughter Catherine Grace Rehwinkel of Stamford, Connecticut, and granddaughter AnnaLaura Rehwinkel of New York City, her sister Gemma Ionnone of North Carolina, her brother Joseph D. Picciotti, Jr. of Rochester, N.Y. and many loving nieces and nephews throughout the country. In heaven, Jeppa will join her father, Dr. Joseph D. Picciotti, a Harvard educated surgeon who died in the Pacific Theater in WWII, her mother Catherine Mary McEneany Picciotti, and her sister Catherine Charbonneau, both nurses. 

Details of a celebration of Jeppa’s life will be announced at a later date. 

Breanna Green of Bevis Funeral Home is assisting the family with their arrangements. (850-385-2193 or www.bevisfh.com)