EAST BERNE — Eleonore Puzulis was a hardworking restaurant manager who loved her family deeply. She died on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019, at St. Peter’s Hospice. She was 84.

“She taught me the values of life,” said her only child, Michael G. Puzulis. “No one gives you anything. If you want something, you have to work for it.”

Mrs. Puzulis was born in Frankfurt, Germany where she met the man who would become her husband, Visvaldis “Val” Puzulis. He was an American paratrooper, stationed in Germany.

“She worked in a restaurant there. That’s where they met; that’s how it all started,” Mr. Puzulis said.

Mrs. Puzulis lived just three months after her husband’s death.

“She was a very hardworking woman,” her son said. She worked in the restaurant business for 30 years. “She was the best banquet manager in the area,” Mr. Puzulis said, noting that her mother had worked at the Golden Fox Restaurant, Valle’s Steakhouse, and the Best Western Turf Inn on Wolf Road in Colonie, which she helped open.

“When she was opening the Turf Inn, she worked 80, 90 hours a week,” her son said. “And then she’d come home and still to the washing, the ironing, the mending, the cleaning.”

Mrs. Puzulis liked cooking at home, too, specializing in German dishes like  potato salad, sauerkraut, and bratwurst, her son said.

The family had originally settled in Albany but then bought a piece of land off of Beaver Dam Road in Berne. “My father was as contractor,” said Mr. Puzulis. “He built our house.”

Mr. Puzulis described his mother as strict, adding, “But she was all about family.”

In his youth, Mr. Puzulis worked with his mother in restaurants. “She had no beans about it,” he said. “If I got out of hand, she would smack me.”

He went on, “We had the best banquet hall in the area … I was a wine steward, busboy waiter.”

Mr. Puzulis worked hard, he said, and, as a senior at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, was able to buy a brand new car.

In her later years, Mrs. Puzulis loved spending “quality time” with her granddaughters, Valentina and Michelle, her son said. “She took them to Disney World and to Hampton Beach a lot.”

Mr. Puzulis described his mother as “bubbly, vibrant, and open-minded.”

“She loved her family very much and did everything for them,” he wrote in a tribute. “My mom will be missed very much by all. Her husband, Val, died on Oct. 3, 2019. She loved her family greatly. My heart aches terribly for the loss of my parents. God bless them, my best friends.”

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Eleonore Puzulis is survived by her son, Michael G. Puzulis; by her daughter-in-law, Svetlana Puzulis; and by her two grandchildren, Valentina E. Puzulis and Michelle A. Puzulis.

Memorial messages may be left below.

A celebration will be held at a later date to be announced.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer