Tori Savona Biography
It was the weekend in the end of Spring, and The Skyway bar was crowded with people. The lights were low, the music was loud, and college kids were letting loose. Mary Ann Tommasone was there on a date with Vincent (Ginz) Savona, someone she had met through a friend. They were dancing away on the dance floor, and the date seemed to be going pretty well. All of a sudden she was bumped from behind. When she turned around a man spilled his drink all down her shirt. Baffled, she looked up at him. He caught her gaze and suave as can be said, “Hey, bright eyes.” And that’s when it all began. Corny as it sounds, she fell head over heels. So who was this mysterious man? Tony Savona, Vincent’s cousin. Tony had planned the whole thing, right down to spilling the drink. And naturally, Mary Ann fell for it. She ended up ditching Ginz, and Tony drove her home that night. Tony and Mary Ann dated for four years and in December of 1988 at the Fireside restaurant, Tony proposed. The wedding was held at OLA church and Chaucher’s restaurant on September 24, 1989. They honeymooned in Mexico right after the wedding, and had one on the way soon after. To their dismay, the plan didn’t work out as well as they had planned. After only nine weeks of being pregnant, Mary Ann had a miscarriage. After that pregnancy was difficult. But eventually four years later, she was pregnant again.
Her and Tony feuded over the name. If the child were to be a boy, they agreed on the name Roberto. But if it were a girl, it wasn’t so easy. Tony wanted the name Alyssa, and Mary Ann wanted the name Elizabeth. For compromise, Mary Ann suggested Alyssabeth. But still Tony wasn’t happy. Then one day, Mary Ann’s best friend Richelle suggested Victoria Milan. It was perfect. On October 16, 1993, Victoria Milan Savona was born. Two months later on December 4th, 1993, Victoria was baptized. Her baptism claimed her as a true part of the church, which would influence the rest of her life. Mary Ann and Tony brought Victoria up very religiously, and had her involved in the church at a young age. When she was only four she became a member of the church choir, also known as the youth ensemble. Usually, you have to be five years old to join the choir, but Mary Ann begged the director, and Victoria cried until they let her. A big part of the age specification is that the members have to be able to read the words to sing. Because Victoria couldn’t read the words, the choir director had to make her tapes with recordings of every song. Victoria would listen to the songs over and over again to memorize the words. Mary Ann and Tony had tried to get pregnant again, and it was successful. Mary Ann got pregnant again after Victoria. However, she only sustained this pregnancy for eleven months, and had another miscarriage. Soon after, though, she had a successful pregnancy, and along came Dominic Anthony Savona. Victoria was four years old when Dominic was born on June 13th, 1998. They became very close over the years, despite being years apart in age.
Victoria’s first day of school rolled around months later. With her late birthday, she entered school at the ripe age of four, eager to learn, and full of personality. She was in the morning Kindergarten class at Bradt School, with Mrs. Doulites as her teacher. Victoria received her First Holy Communion at the age of six in the Spring of 2000 at St. Madeline Sophie Church. The next year came and at the age of seven, Victoria was ecstatic when her mom announced that she was pregnant again. She was so excited to have a little sister and began picking out clothes and dolls to share. Regretfully, Mary Ann had another miscarriage. With this, Mary Ann and Tony decided to not have any more children. Victoria had told them that she didn’t mind, she didn’t really want to share her dolls anyway. With her maturing mind, came her maturing body, and maturing teeth. Her teeth were very mature for her age and she had the option to get braces at the young age of seven. A month before her second grade year, Victoria got two palette expanders and a top row of braces put on, just in time for school in August. Though she may have looked extremely cute with them on, she was unable to pronounce her name without drooling. On the way to school on the first day, she cried in the car as she practiced pronouncing her name repeatedly. The next year came around, and she got her braces off right before her third grade year. It was during this year that Victoria was in her first play; “George M” as a member of the ensemble. Since then she has done all three shows per year every year with Mohon Masque Theatre.
Theatre became a very big part of her life. At the age of eight she saw her first Broadway show: “The Lion King” with her family in NYC. This would be the first of many shows that she would see on Broadway. Soon after, at the age of eight, Victoria took part in her first community theatre play: “Some Enchanted Evening” with Family Players of NENY. At the age of eleven she rightfully inherited the title “World Traveler”. In the sixth grade, she entered an essay contest for her english class, and was one of six to win a trip to the Grand Canyon. Of course it wasn’t a vacation, the trip was an Electronic Field Trip and while they were there, her and her classmates would learn, go to museums, and host a television show where they would teach about their findings. It was a week long, and the first time that she had been without her parents. In that same year she traveled with her family to Mexico, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. It was here that she was stung by a jelly fish, and swam with sting rays, two experiences that not many people can share with her. That summer Victoria traveled to Scotland and England for a month. She was granted this opportunity by the People to People Student Ambassador Program, to which she was nominated. She toured the two countries with other children her age, and had one of the best experiences of her life. Her life progressed and she matured as a woman. With this, came some complications. She was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This is something that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Positively, she did survive, and prosper. Many years of pointless drama or the preteens and such lead up to high school, and her freshman year with less than significant occurrences. When her sophomore year came, things began to change. In November of that year she went on a confirmation retreat for her church at Camp Pinnacle. It was there that she made many friends and got stronger in her faith. When January came around, she went on another retreat. This one was Youth For Christ’s EXCEL. It’s an annual conference for high school Christians. It combines praise and worship, prayer, drama, comedy and music with strong biblical teaching. It changed her life for the better. Then March came and she went on another retreat, called Journey with St. Gabriel’s Church. She continued with these retreats all through high school as a counselor and helper. The summer after her sophomore year was by far the best of them all. For a month Victoria and her family went to Italy. There, they stayed in Rome, Positano and Tuscany, and took day trips to Pompeii, Capri, Siena, Venice, Pisa and others. After touring, they stayed in Silvi Marina, located in Abruzzi. This is where Mary Ann and Tony’s families live. There, Victoria and Dominic met cousins, aunts and uncles on both sides of the family. Victoria’s junior year came and was very difficult for her. She overloaded herself with honors classes and an AP class, and many out of school activities. Also that year, her family hosted Jens, a foreign exchange student from Denmark. They took him in at the end of November and he stayed with them until August. When she had reflected on this time before, she stated that she couldn’t have handled her junior year without him there. The two of them had many things in common and quickly became best friends.
Her senior year came, and she continued to overload herself with AP and honors courses, but she breezed through them easier due to the subject matter. She got a lead in the school play and had a perfect senior year. After high school she moved on to Union College majoring in Biology. During college she continued with theatre and made many new friends. After Union, she moved on to Albany Med for Med School. Through high school she had known that she wanted to specialize in Neurology. It was at Albany Med that this was strengthened to the point where she decided to push further and become a Neurosurgeon. After completing school, she did her residency at Albany Med as well. It was during this time that she had met her future husband. She was out with friends one night when she met him on the dance floor, just like her mother, only minus the spilling of the drink. She was swept off her feet. He was also at Albany Med, as a radiologist. They dated for a year and while on a trip to NYC, he proposed in front of Rockefeller Center during Christmas. Both of them shared their values and morals, which made it easy to have a family. They were married on October 1, 2018. They honeymooned all over Europe. Due to complications and Victoria’s PCOS, pregnancy wasn’t easy. But, due to their connections with the hospital, and surgery and medication, they became pregnant within less than a year. Their first child was a boy who was born on April 10, 2020. They named him Roberto Paulo, keeping with the Italian heritage that they shared. Soon after they became pregnant with a girl who they would name Giovinna. To their surprise, they later found out that it was twins. The other girl was to be named Francesca. On January 16th, 2022, the two girls were born.
The five of them lived in a large home in a secluded area of the capital region. The home was built by Victoria’s family. As a family they quickly became involved in the church, as both Victoria and her husband were as children. All three of the children were baptized and progressed in faith receiving all of the other sacraments as well. Before she could blink, the children grew up into their high school years and into college. Roberto became an Environmental Engineer and worked for a large corporation oversees, putting a family on hold at first. Francesca opened her own hair studio as a hair stylist in NYC and became a renown cosmetologist. Giovinna became a second grade teacher at a local elementary school. After being wiped out as a business owner in such a bustling area, Francesca returned home, where she opened another salon. Giovinna was the first to marry, with Francesca soon after. Giovinna settled down with a man who was an english professor at a college. Francesca married a man who worked for General Electric, who would become best friends with Roberto. Roberto moved back home, and soon after married an aerobics instructor that he met at a gym. Francesca had a child first of the three, a boy named Anthony. After that she also had a boy named Dominic. Giovinna ended up having a girl and a boy, Nicole and Joseph. Roberto and his wife adopted a boy from Korea named Jacob. Victoria and her husband were very happy with where their lives took them and retired early. They bought a summer home in Italy that they went to very often. They both continued being very involved in their church as well. On December 8th, 2066, Victoria died of brain cancer, in the arms of her husband, and surrounded by her three children and five grandchildren.