Selina P. Sousa, born on June 12th, 1939 in Santa Cruz, Graciosa, Açores Portugal, passed on December 29th, 2023 peacefully at home, surrounded by her close family. She was the daughter of the late Abilio Sousa DaCunha Veiga and Maria Graciomilde (Picanço) Veiga. Selina was raised and educated in Graciosa, where she was a seamstress for 17 years prior to immigrating to the United States in 1970. She settled and resided in Pawtucket, RI with her family. She worked at International Stretch, and then at Conrad-Jarvis prior to her retirement in 2004 and was a member of Grupo Amigos da Terçeira in Pawtucket, RI.

Selina always needed to be well-dressed, with her hair, lipstick, and jewelry on point. This often meant frequent hair dye and curler applications. She enjoyed cooking and baking (to make sure everyone’s belly was full at all times), gardening, sewing, her knick-knack collection, watching her novelas and Benfica on TV, reading the Portuguese Times and Gente magazine (so she could know the dirt on Portuguese celebrities), and above all else, spending time with her grandchildren and making sure we all knew that she was the Matriarch of our home.

She is predeceased by her husband Leonido Sousa and her son Luis Daniel DaCunha. She leaves behind her daughter Maria-Helena DaCunha Montalvan (Juan), her step-daughters: Helena Calisto (Manuel) and Maria Alice Gil Silva (Manuel), her grandchildren: Dionne DaCunha, Erika Petrin (Daniel), Joseph DaCunha, Jonathan Montalvan and Shawn Montalvan, and her great-grandchildren: Evan Petrin (Cara Linda), Juliette Petrin (A Minha Princesa) and 5 other great grand-children along with her sisters: Carmel Rollinson and Suzette Veiga and many nieces and nephews. She is also pre-deceased by her brothers: Manuel Veiga, Adelino Cunha, Eduardo Veiga, Abílio Veiga, Augusto Veiga, Antonio Veiga and Mário Veiga and sisters: Alda Fox and Leontina Veiga.

Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend visitation on Thursday, January 4th at Keefe Funeral Home, 5 Higginson Avenue, Lincoln, Rhode Island from 9:00 - 10:30A.M. Her funeral Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 11:00A.M. at the Historic St. Joseph Church, 1303 Mendon Road, Cumberland, Rhode Island. She will be laid to rest at Notre Dame Cemetery, 359 Dagget Avenue, Pawtucket. Rhode Island.