Amedine Allis Bella

Amédine Allis Bella, 88, of Dublin, NH, passed away peacefully on October 11th, 2024, at Rivermead Retirement Community in Peterborough, NH after a period of declining health, primarily Parkinson’s Disease. She was born in Cambridge, MA on July 5th, 1936, the daughter of William P. and Nancy O. (Morison) Allis.

Amédine lived in Cambridge, MA, and Gap, France during her childhood as an older sister to two brothers John and Edward Allis. Her schooling included Buckingham (MA), Winsor (MA) `54, and a BA in Modern Languages from Oberlin (OH) `58. Her first job was with Raytheon as a bilingual secretary. She traveled to Strasbourg, France to take classes in theology where she met Igor Vladimir Bella, her husband-to-be, over Turkish coffee. The two were married on September 3rd, 1960, in Cambridge, MA, and moved to Toledo, OH where he was ordained as a Lutheran minister.

Amédine embraced her roles as a loving mother and a pastor’s wife, joining multiple church groups and teaching Sunday school at churches Igor served at throughout Ohio. She followed her passion for singing in the church choir as a proud alto. That extended to various choral groups including the Oberlin Choral Union, Toledo Choral Society, Wheeling (WV) Community Choir, NH Friendship Chorus, and the Monadnock Chorus (NH). Her love of music included a wide range of operas, classical music (especially Mozart), and carried over into a love of international folk dancing. God forbid if there was a sound made in the house during the weekly radio broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera!

She and her husband traveled all over the world and touched all seven continents. As a child, she biked across Europe and hiked in the French alps. Together they visited China, Russia, both the Arctic and Antarctic, Morocco, New Zealand, Slovakia, and many other countries. Trips to France often included their children and fed into a desire to make vacations as much about education as it was about fun.

A passion for all things cultural included books, art, dance, museums, and roadside historical markers. She was disciplined and serious yet had a great sense of humor, a hardy laugh, and a huge smile. She loved to smirk, with a twinkle in her eye, insisting that tomato must only be pronounced as “tomAHto.”

Amédine is survived by two children, Ivan Nathaniel Bella and Alyssa Bella Landahl. She is also survived by daughter-in-law Katherine Eggleston, son-in-law Andrew Landahl, three grandchildren, Madeline, William, and Sally, her brother John Allis, and many cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

A Celebration of Life will likely take place in late spring or early summer of 2025 in Peterborough, New Hampshire and will be announced at a later time.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Amédine’s name to Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music ( https://applehill.org ) or Global Refuge - formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refuge Service ( https://www.globalrefuge.org ).