Bluffton baker dies on Bahamas trip. ‘She just wanted to live life, and she did that’
Bluffton businesswoman Stephanie Pisano, owner of the former Twisted European Bakery in Old Town, died Feb. 9 while visiting Grand Bahama Island. She was 59.
Pisano opened her Bluffton bakery in 2016. After a statewide mandate closed restaurants for several months at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, she decided not to reopen the business and instead sought work as a life coach and motivational speaker.
“I kept thinking ‘Is this what I want to do?’ It wasn’t my true passion,” Pisano told a reporter in December about the long hours required to keep the bakery running. “What I really loved about having my business was the people. People would come in, and they’d tell me their whole life story. … That’s where I found my joy.”
Ava Votta, Pisano’s daughter, said her mother had recovered from COVID-19 in June but had scar tissue on her lungs as a result. She had been admitted to a Grand Bahama hospital for tests after suffering heart symptoms while accompanying her boyfriend, Jerry Sarver, on a business trip to the island.
Pisano’s cause of death had not been determined.
Pisano started her career as a teen working in her grandfather’s bakery in South Philadelphia. Later, she owned and operated a successful Philadelphia beauty salon called Incognito, Your Body Salon for 25 years before moving to Bluffton to get away from cold winters and be closer to the beach.
She opened Twisted European Bakery with a business partner who as a teen also had worked in her grandfather’s bakery. They thought of their partnership as a “twist of fate” and used that to inspire the name, Pisano had explained. When her partner left the business, Pisano kept it going nearly single-handedly, waking up at 3 every morning to go to work, her daughter said.
Even then, Pisano always made helping others a priority.
“She had such a presence and a magnifying personality, it was hard not to love her,” Votta said of her mother. “The way she was in everybody’s eyes, that was her. It was not a facade.”
Votta said that, since her mother’s death, many people had reached out to let her know how Pisano advised and encouraged them.
“It’s amazing how many lives she’s actually touched,” Votta said.
Friends remember
Debbie Gibbens, owner of One Stop Bakery in Levy, said her relationship with Pisano started out being about business but evolved into a friendship.
“She was a ray of sunshine, very outgoing,” said Gibbens. “She always had a smile, no matter how bad the day was going.”
One Stop Bakery sold Pisano’s hand-made pastries, including eclairs, tarts, cannoli, chocolate croissants, apple rolls and more.
Pam Catuogno, who owns Bricco Italian restaurant in Old Town Bluffton with husband Nino, remembered the delight of Pisano’s pecan rolls among all the things she made, but, moreover, she recalled her friend’s generous and encouraging nature.
She said Pisano was one of the first friends she made after moving to town.
“You met her, and you felt close with her,” Catuogno said.
The women regularly walked a six-mile route around Old Town together, often laughing until they were crying. “Time always slid by,” Catuogno said. “She had a great sense of humor. ... She believed in the positive.”
The last text Pisano sent to Catuogno said, simply, “Pam, smile.”
“I want to remember all the things that she said to me, all the positives, and move forward with that,” Catuogno said.
Memorial service
Votta said a memorial service would be held at a later date, with details announced via Pisano’s Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the 29-year-old said she is leaning hard on advice her mother gave her about two weeks ago. “She always told me, ‘You need to be grateful and you need to live in abundance, and if you’re ever sad, you need to think about everything in your life that you’re grateful for because, if you think like that, you’re not going to be sad anymore.’”
And Votta is also taking comfort that her mother lived her life fully until the day she died.
“She had no limit. She had no fear. She just wanted to live life, and she did that.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 10:42 AM.
