Anita Hazel Redding

     Anita H. Redding (née Ravalo), retired nurse, Chief Officer and co-owner of the family business, died on October 4, at Northwest Hospital. She was 89 years old and lived in Linthicum Heights.

     Anita was born on August 11, 1934, in Baltimore.  The eldest of six children, she began her life as a caring sister and evolved into a matriarch and community builder.  Throughout her life, Anita possessed a talent for sports and dance, as well as a love for travel, all of which brought her many meaningful experiences.

     As a young woman, Anita shared a love of dancing at local halls with her sisters and friends.  Following graduation from Seton High School, she met her husband, Lindy, at a dance, and they married in 1954.  They had three sons and two daughters, and would have celebrated their 70^th anniversary next year.  The life they built included forming a HVAC business in 1955, that still exists today, traveling abroad and visiting almost every state together, and fishing excursions with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

     While running their business and raising a family, Anita maintained a busy life.  She organized and managed women’s softball, basketball, and volleyball teams and had a side business breeding poodles and showing them in kennel shows.  The amateur AAU softball team ‘Baltimore Bullets’ that she formed and managed in the mid-60s and maintained through the 80s, was hugely successful, competing along the mid-Atlantic.  In 2005, she was inducted into the Maryland Softball Hall of Fame, after decades of playing and managing, as well as volunteering for the AAU.

     When her children reached their teenage years, Anita turned her attention back to her own education, and graduated from AACC as an RN, and soon entered Harbor Hospital in South Baltimore as a nurse in the emergency department.  She remained at Harbor until retiring in 2006.  Never one to relax too long, Anita used her retirement years to work full time as the Chief Officer of the family business, Lindy M. Redding Heating and Air Conditioning, until her recent, short illness prevented her from doing so.

     Anita’s ability to draw people to herself and her love for her family and friends led her to form and participate in decades-long traditions.  In the early sixties, she began taking her children to Ocean City, Maryland each summer.   The tradition continued through this year, having grown to include her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and friends. She kept in touch with her school friends and organized get-togethers with them her entire life, and participated in yearly bus trips with fellow nurses, active and retired, to Atlantic City.  With her dear friends, she traveled on cruises almost every year.

     Anita’s family fondly remembers a woman who lived an exemplary life, encouraging three generations of her family to love each other without bounds or conditions.  She was generous with her time and looked for opportunities to support the people she loved.  She was charitable and forgiving, and her faith in God allowed her to take the beauty and tragedy of life together.  She maintained her trust in God even through the sudden death of her son, Lindy Jr. in 1998, and of her grandson Sean, in 2017.            

    Anita is survived by her husband, her sister Gerry Mejia, her children Michele, Robin, Ronald, and David (Sharon), 7 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, who all grieve the loss of a beacon of wisdom and love.

     Family and friends are invited to gather at Singleton Funeral & Cremation Services, P.A., 1 2^nd Avenue, S.W. (at Crain Hwy), in Glen Burnie, on Monday, Oct. 9^th, from 2 – 4 and 6 – 8 PM.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, 10:30 AM, at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 6405 S. Orchard Road, Linthicum, Maryland 21090.  Interment at Glen Haven Memorial Park.