When customers lined up at Emilia Pontarelli’s cash register at Tony’s Italian Deli on Northwest Highway in Edison Park, they felt like they’d been adopted by an Italian nonna. She’d ask when they were going to get married.

If they bought her homemade lasagna, sugo (sauce) or giardiniera, she’d say approvingly: “Mama’s cooking for you tonight.” If any of her grandchildren’s friends stopped in, she’d issue a firm directive: “You tell them to come visit me.”