Custom Catering By Ria

04/15/2026

My beloved husband, i love you 💙😘

View Joseph Lombardi's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

04/15/2026

In Loving Memory of Joe

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of my beautiful husband’s passing early this morning. He went peacefully; I am so grateful to have been by his side, surrounded by love.

They say you are at rest now, and while my heart breaks to lose you, I am so grateful that you are at peace. You fought so hard, and now you can finally let go.

“Wait for me in the quiet places. I will carry your love with me until we meet again”.

Thank you for the life we built and for the way you loved me. You were an incredible, kind man with a beautiful heart and a gently sole. Joe you will always be my forever angel.

-‘Tribute To Joe”-

I wanted to repost this note I wrote the other day about Joe and his journey.

To Family and Friends,

I wanted to take a moment to share a little bit about the man many of you know so well. The journey we have gone through for the last nine months has definitely changed our lives, and while I wish the outcome were different, I feel so blessed to be with this beautiful man. I want to take this time now to tell him how amazing he is and to share a little more of our story with all of you.

I have walked beside Joe for 36 years. This year, we will celebrate 32 years of marriage, and looking back, our journey has been nothing short of amazing. They say when you find the love of your life, you truly begin to enjoy life—and I cannot imagine being anywhere else but right here with him.

I was so lucky to have met Joe in 1990. I knew even then that he was the one for me. Like anything else, marriage has its ups and downs, but you push through and you make it work. Throughout our years together, we have been blessed with so many opportunities to travel, have fun, and bring two beautiful children into this world. Our daughter and son are truly the greatest parts of the life we’ve built together.

Joe is one of a kind. Everyone who meets him loves him; he can talk about any topic, make you laugh, and connect with anyone. He is kind-hearted, compassionate, and remarkably calm—the kind of person who stays understanding and always figures things out. He would never get angry or mad unless he was truly pushed to it.

He also has a restless, adventurous spirit. Joe is the person who will take on any task just to figure out how it works, and he always gives 100% to everything he touches. Whether he is out fishing, trap shooting, boating, or working on cars, his passion for life always shines through. We all know how proud he is of his beautiful “green” custom Jeep—his “baby” that he worked on for so long. Joe, your love for your passions, and for life itself, is truly remarkable.

Joe, thank you for an amazing 36 years of adventure. I am so blessed to have been by your side and so proud of the life we’ve made. You will always be the love of my life.

With all my love,
Maria

04/03/2026

I am writing to share an update on my husband Joe. As most of you know, our lives changed back in August when Joe was diagnosed with AML Leukemia which lead to the decision of selling Ria’s. I have been by his side at Dana-Farber for these many months, focusing every ounce of my energy on his treatments and supporting him during this extremely difficult journey.

After a long, hard-fought battle with AML Leukemia and a series of complex challenges since November, we are writing to share that Joe has fulfilled his wish he is now home.

After 137 days at Dana-Farber during this second stay, Joe chose to return to the comfort of his home to be close to the family and friends he loves. As many of you know AML is an aggressive cancer and at this time, our only priority is ensuring he is comfortable, peaceful, and filled with love.

While his cancer is not in remission there are no further treatments including clinical trials and stem cell transplant are no longer an option due to his bone marrow (refractory diease) and platelets not recovering. Joe’s strength during this journey remains unlike anything we have ever seen. He is truly a remarkable man!

The road has not been easy. Complications from Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) following chemotherapy have left Joe currently unable to walk or fully use his hands. Because of this physical toll and his overall weakness, he agreed to continue to receive transfusions three times a week via ambulance transport. These treatments are taxing, yet he continues at this time to press forward until he chooses otherwise.

Joe is truly the toughest, bravest fighter we know. Even in December, when his body began to shut down, he fought back and recovered against all odds. His resilience is a constant inspiration to everyone who knows him.

We want to extend our deepest thanks to the remarkable, compassionate nurses and staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital floor 7C & 4C (Dana-Farber) Your expertise, dedication, and kindness provided Joe with incredible care, and we will be forever grateful to you and will always be apart of our family. Thank you to all of Joe’s amazing doctors at Dana Farber!


I would like to take a moment send a few special thank yous:

A special thank you to our fanily memeber Rich for building the ramp at the house. Because of your hard work and kindness, Joe is able to come home and move in and out safely. We are so grateful!

To our wonderful neighbors, Thank you so much for helping us keep up with the maintenance these past few months while we were in Boston. We really appreciate all your help in keeping our home so well-manicured! It was such a relief to come home to everything looking beautiful."

To my brothers, sister-in-law, my girlfriend Linda, and my cousins for the endless support, love, and for being there when I needed to vent during my months in Boston. We’re so grateful for everything! We Love you guys! ❤️😘🙏🏻

To our family and friends thank you for the outpouring of love, prayers, and support you’ve shown us during this time. It truly means the world to Joe and our family! We love you🙏🏻😘❤️

02/10/2026

Please check out The Lost Gnome in downtown Albany (the old HuckFinns Warehouse) owned by a close friend of the family! This
is a wonderful place for great coffee and sandwiches! Support small local business.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CTk3qRUZx/?mibextid=wwXIfr NOmnse r a cy

Fantasy Cafe specializing in Coffee, Comics, Trading Card Games, and more! Owned by Michaela, Austin & Neal

12/12/2025

🧡🙏🏼 All donations go directly to my dad and my mom Ria to help them with expenses, travel and medical expenses that they have acquired will be acquiring within the last 6 months. That being said, I ask please continue your prayers for dad beacause he really struggling right now. He is currently suffering from pneumonia, a bacterial infection, a fungal infection, GBS as well as acute meyloid leukemia. Due to all of the infections that have occurred and his counts not going up after the chemo the doctors are unable to provide any more chemotherapy to him. We asking for all your prayers and we need a miracle that his counts go up, but as of right now, he is still considered refracturing patient. Please continue your prayers and positive vibes. We are so grateful for all of your support. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to reach out to me as long as I’m up for it I’ll answer. 🧡🙏🏼. @ Facebook adrianna angerami

Joe Lombardi was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a fast-growing can… Rachel Frank needs your support for Support Joe’s Fight Against AML

11/22/2025

♦️Good afternoon to all! Wanted to just clarify that I am no longer the owner of Ria’s Bistro’s @113 State St. Ria’s Bistro new owners have their own page Ria’s Cafe which is the deli @113 State St. (please see my farewell post that is pinned at top of this page from Sept.)

My focus now is catering so Custom Catering by Ria is only owned by me. (Yes, I do know it’s mispelled on facebook but they will not let me change it for 30 more days) Please feel free to reach out for catering @ 518-461-0440

I have repinned my farewell letter for those they may have not have seen it from September! Just wanted to clarify that because there were some confusions.💕

Thank you!

Ria

11/22/2025

Good evening everyone just wanted share this update on my husband Joe from last week unfortunately Joe was remitted back to Dana Farber last week. I ask please keep the good vibes and prayers coming🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you!

♦️From Nov. 14th.

Good morning everyone, I thought I’d give you another update on my husband Joe. On Monday, we went back to Boston met with his oncologist and his stem cell doctor. Through his blood work, unfortunately we found out that the new chemo he had just completed 21 day cycle which was a different regimen than the first two unfortunately did not work. Doctor stated that Joe’s cells are refracturing, which means Joe cancer cells are resistant to the chemotherapy and have relapsed. Joe was remitted into the hospital because his leukemia cells are at 30%.

As of yesterday, Joe started a new regimen, of chemotherapy which is extremely stronger than anything he has had to this point. This regimen is three different types of chemo with an addition of a shot every day for six days! He will be in the hospital again for over a month. After month they will see if this new regimen was effective!

Joe is handling this the best he can! Thankfully, Joe is a fighter and he has the strength to keep fighting even tho there are days he feels so defeated and extremely exhausted! This has been extremely difficult, but we are both strong individuals and we will make it through this as well!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

On a positive note we did get some amazing news!! Doctor told us that they have found a donor 10 out of 10 match!!! The donor ready to go as soon as Joe can get into remission and his cancer cells are below 5% than the transplant plant process will begin.

We like to thank everyone for your continued support and prayers, please continue to keep praying for Joe that this chemo treatment will work he able to get into remission and transplant!!
❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻

10/26/2025

Good morning everyone,
many of you have asked how my husband Joe is doing. Joe was in the hospital for total of 77 days and on Friday we are happy to say he finally got to go home! Although this is a difficult journey, we continue to stay positive and take each day as it comes. He still has a long road ahead, but we are grateful to be able go home for a little while.

Two weeks ago Joe had another bone biopsy. That test unfortunately showed 20% still of leukemia cells which means another cycle of chemo along with chemo pills.

We are hoping that this cycle will work on the remaining leukemia cells. There is also a possibility of a clinical trial the doctors may want Joe to participate in before transplant if his Leukemia cells do not go below 5%.

Joe’s leukemia cells need to go below 5% before the doctors will start the process of preparing him for a stem cell transplant which will bring us back to Boston for about a month or so.

In the meantime, Joe will be doing outpatient treatments and will be traveling back to Boston once a week! Joe’s at a high risk for infection and his immune system is highly compromised which means we must be extremely careful and Joe is not able to leave our home but for his treatments. Please continue to send good vibes and prayers that this chemo round will work!

We are so grateful for the amazing care from all the doctors and nurses here at Dana Farber. They are incredible and always made sure Joe was ok. They were very attentive to him and he had the best team! Thank you so much!

This entire process has been overwhelming for the both of us and I wanted to take time to thank all of our family and friends for your tremendous supoort, generosity and prayers.

Special thank you’s to my niece Mikeala and her husband Pat for opening their home to me and allowing me to stay there while traveling back-and-forth to Boston.

To my girlfriend, Linda for your tremendous support and help with everything, her daughter Rachel who created our go fund me page my cousins (my sisters) for your generosity and support, my brother Claud and Sister-In-Law Joanne, Mike Keegan for helping me with repairs to get my home ready for Joe to come home. Joe Dannhardt you were my angel for doing our sheet rock! We are so grateful for all the time you all donated and your hard work I couldn’t have done it without all of you! It was so unbelievable!!

Thank you all so very much we are so blessed to have all of you behind us we truly are so grateful for all of you!❤️🙏🏻

10/21/2025

Good morning everyone did you know that I offer early-morning Catering with pastries, coffee and breakfast sandwiches here are a few pictures! Give me a call for next Catering event!
518-461-0440

♦️ We do realize that the word Catering in the heading is spelled incorrectly, but do to Facebook rules, we have another 30 days before we can change the spelling thank you for messaging me!

10/08/2025

I was busy this morning doing multiple caterings! I may no longer own Ria’s Bistro but, my catering services and quality will always remain the sane!! Please give me a call for your next office or private event! New number: 518-461-0440