Valeria Madeline Colombatto Brown, 93
Valeria Madeline Colombatto Brown, of Hull and formerly of Farmington Hills, Mich., and Santa Fe, N.M., died on May 18 at the Life Care Center of the South Shore in Scituate. She was 93.
Born in Chicago to the late Joseph John and Valeria Agnes (Zygutis) Colombatto, she grew up in Detroit where she attended Cooley High School and earned money hand-painting silk neckties. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts at Wayne State University, later becoming certified as the first art therapist in Michigan and as a counselor by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. As a fine artist, Valeria was represented by the Rubiner Gallery in Michigan 
Valeria studied group therapy at Esalen under Fritz Perls. After teaching art at Oakland Community College, she served as an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at Harper Hospital in the Detroit Medical Center. 
Upon retiring, Valeria bravely established a new life in remote Abiquiu, N.M., enthralled by the West and New Mexico’s Native American and Hispanic cultures. With her husband James, she built an adobe home and found a place in the community of artists there. She sold paintings privately through the annual Abiquiu Studio Tour. She also was an accomplished cook and ballroom dancer as well a lover of the outdoors. 
In their later years, she and James resettled in Santa Fe for a decade before joining his daughter and her family in their restored fishermen’s boarding house in Hull. 
Valeria was the beloved wife of the late James Howard Brown, who died in 2019. With her first husband, the late Dr. Mario Petrini, she had six children, as well as a foster child, Ubaldo Rodriguez. She was the devoted mother of Elisa Petrini of New York; Mark Petrini and his wife, Deborah Jones, of New York; Odette Petrini, of Michigan; Matthew Petrini, of South Carolina; John Petrini and his partner, Sarah Curtis, of New York; Andrea Petrini and her partner, John Lee, of New York; and Darcy Brown Doty and her husband, Dean, of Hull. She was the loving grandmother of Henry and Lucas Petrini, of New York; Iris Zhong Tao McNally, of Michigan; Matthew David and Heaven Arnetta Petrini, of Michigan; Ramona Petrini and Joseph Petrini, of New York; and Thea and James Doty, of Hull. She was preceded in death by her siblings, Joseph Colombatto and Dorothea Colombatto Brown. 
Valeria will be interred privately at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at a later date on Cape Cod. Commemorative donations can be made in her name to the Detroit Institute of Arts (https://www.dia.org/support) and to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, N.M., (https://www.ghostranch.org). 
Normally, the funeral is an opportunity for the community to gather in support of one another. Although we cannot gather together with Valeria’s family at this time, friends can still offer their support by visiting www.Keohane.com and sharing a special memory or message. For those who cannot access the website, call 1-800-KEOHANE to have your message added.