In her 95th year, Armonia "Val" Cueto passed away at Central Vermont Hospital in the presence of her loving family. Val was born at Barre City Hospital on May 16, 1921 to Ramon Maximo Villanueva and Mariana Elguera Villanueva, both of whom had emigrated from Santander Province in northern Spain. At age 3, she moved with her family from Barre City to a home on High Street in Williamstown, where her father could find purer air away from the conditions at the granite shed where he worked. Val had an older brother, Germinal, and a younger sister, Shirley; both predeceased her. After graduating from Williamstown High School, Val matriculated at the Heaton Hospital School of Nursing in Montpelier in fall 1939. After she completed her studies in 1942, she worked at the Claremont (N.H.) Hospital surgical ward for two months and then joined the Army Nurse Corps on December 1 of that year. Basic training was at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. She served for almost four years, with 30 months of service in the European Theatre of the Second World War, including sequentially North Africa, Italy, and France as the war front shifted. Among other awards, she received the European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three battle stars. She was assigned to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri when the war in Europe ended. When she separated from service, she held the rank of Captain. Her rich lifetime memories from overseas service, setting aside experiencing firsthand the horrors of war, included witnessing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in March 1944, rest and recuperation at the Isle of Capri, where she visited the Blue Grotto, and living in Naples and Paris. After returning home to Vermont, Val reconnected with a Montpelier lad, Rosendo "Rosie" Cueto, Jr., whom she had met while in nursing school and whose parents also came from Santander Province. They married on June 23, 1947 at the Williamstown United Federated Church. They initially settled in the "little house" next to Rosie's parents on Berlin Street in Montpelier, then built and moved into their own house on the family's farm on Murray Road in East Montpelier in 1959. Val left nursing and engaged in the typical motherly duties of the day, as well as clerking at the family's meat market on Barre Street, and supporting Rosie in his cattle business. Two children were born to the marriage, Jeffrey Rosendo in 1949 and Julie Ellen in 1960. After 60 years of marriage, Val lost her companion to cancer in 2007. She was fortunate to remain independent, healthy, engaged and active for her remaining years. Her nursing school yearbook captured her character and spirit well: "Sugar and spice with none of the hot seasonings omitted…Moody, tidy, and efficient, that's Val." She came to age in the Great Depression, and, therefore, did not hesitate to undertake home projects, like papering and painting, upholstering, and making drapes, not only to save money but also in order to ensure that her strict specifications would be met. Although she didn't particularly like to cook, all enjoyed her meals and especially her desserts, like lemon meringue pie, strawberry cream roll, and chocolate strata pie. She loved gardening, knitting and needlepoint, murder mysteries, watching birds at the feeder, and going on weekend spins in the car with Rosie. Val leaves behind her son Jeffrey and his wife, Linda, on the farm in East Montpelier, her grandson, Daniel Rosendo, of Los Angeles, and her daughter Julie, of Milton. There will be no calling hours. A committal service will be held at the convenience of the family at Berlin Corners Cemetery in the spring. Condolences may be sent to the family at 705 Murray Road, East Montpelier, VT 05651. Guare and Sons Funeral Home is handling arrangements.