To the editor:

When I first came to Rhode Island more than 50 years ago, it took me some time to find Rod’s Grill. My first memory of Rod’s was how people order their weiners: two “all the way” or three “all the way,” or two “no onion,” etc. Eventually I got to know what “all the way” meant.

I did not know Eleanor Rodrigues very well. I would usually wave or say hi. She was always busy working in the back, but not too busy to pause, smile and say hi or wave, but there was always her smile.

I remember years ago, at the end of the day, she made up the leftover weiners “all the way,” and her late husband, Ray, would take them down to the ball field at Burr’s Hill Park and pass them out.

Eleanor was matriarch, mother and grandmother, who taught hard work by example, until it was time to go home.

On a very cold Monday night in February, Bristol and Warren turned out by the hundreds at Sansone Funeral Home to say goodbye to Eleanor and to send her home. Did Eleanor make it home? Yes, “all the way.”
Count me among the many who will miss her smile.

George Carroll
Warren