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nse of wonder and exploration and joy an appreciation of the classics you have two other blogs don t you can you tell us a little about these sixtyfivewhatnow is about living in a small town growing old being involved with the community i also have an italian language blog italian for beginners i started it for my grandchild who has shown interest in learning italian she is asian american speaks mandarin burmese spanish and now is dabbling in italian who knows where she ll go on her journey thank you for talking to italy magazine and happy blogging thank you for your interest i appreciated the opportunity italy magazine the n 1 magazine for lovers of all things italian istos srl web development and social media 39 0932 950222 via benedetto spadaro 109 97014 ispica rg italia posted by rosaria williams at 7 10 am 23 comments tuesday june 22 2010 epilogue update 5 18 2012 this picture of my son brian was taken in july 2011 a few weeks before he died the purpose of this project was to leave some shards of the past for future generations it became a pilgrimage into the past to the person i was the family we were about the people in this memoir teodoro rapolla ted tiudo married marie dugan and died in los angeles california he had three children anne marie georgeanne and paul paul died before his father his daughters still live in the house he built designed in burbank california adelina rapolla lina settled in fresno california where uncle jo giuseppe rapolla had lived she had three children joann scordino don scordino and carla scordino don still lives in fresno addolorata rapolla d ambrosio dolora my mother moved to monza after our family home was transformed into a parking area for the elementary school nearby this occurred after i left for america she and my father retired back in venosa father died in 1973 she in 1986 she visited me in california and was present at the birth of my third child brian antonio d ambrosio toni my eldest brother moved to torino then milano all over the north of italy worked as a taylor a costume designer and a fashion designer he married and moved his family to monza he ended up working for the piccolo teatro di milano as a fashion designer later he worked for the fashion house of valentino in rome his two two children mario and laura still live in milano or its vicinity toni is 78 retired and living back in venosa with his second wife rosetta he bought land and built himself a retirement cottage on a vineyard in the same style as our family home luigi d ambrosio my baby brother was five when i left for california he lives with his wife debra in invorio piemonte i rosaria ninetta emigrated in 1959 at seventeen attended college and graduate school became a teacher and later a specialist and an administrator i settled in los angeles married kendrick williams a scientist and researcher our children jon scott williams pia nicole williams robbins brian christian williams we retired on the beautiful southern oregon coast where we are presently residing our youngest brian christian williams became a victim of homicide in fullerton california on july 17 2011 donna maria rosaria mingu s mother lived way into her eighties all other relatives mingu s brothers addolorata s aunts and cousings are scattered in italy there are rapolla s cousins living in new jersey and new york i met helena rapolla farrell via facebook courtesy of joann scordino who had met her in person years before that part of the family is doing well the family house i grew up in was torn down even the church i was baptized in the church of purgatory was declared unsafe and shut down ironically the college i attended immaculate heart college is now the american film institute the church we were married in a small russian wooden church st basil burned down and in its place a beautiful big cathedral was erected on wilshire boulevard in los angeles i returned to visit venosa just twice in 1970 and in 2002 some names were changed to protect privacy historical facts and information reported here are shared memories and are repeated as heard any error was not intentional nor meant to deceive anybody this memoir is dedicated to my family my children who are my pride and joy and my husband who has been my constant supporter without them i would cry my heart out and never tell the whole truth to contact me rosariainpo gmail com this page updated 5 18 2012 posted by rosaria williams at 9 11 am 17 comments labels epilogue monday june 21 2010 coming to america this picture was taken in anticipation of our voyage to america i m the little girl six years old next to me is my father mingu domenico my mother dolora addolorata and my big brother tony antonio my little brother luigi was not born yet i was four when i met zio tiudo uncle ted for the first time he was a skinny man with a bad leg back from india where he spent many years as a prisoner of war i was still sleeping in my crib and he insisted i was too old to sleep there he spent time painting and telling stories of his captivity mamma said he became corrupted by all those years in a foreign land in a foreign climate the year was 1946 and when i started pre school at the convent where mamma and zia adelina had attended at my age he walked me there and talked to the sisters at length they had him talk to our class too he was funny warm handsome engaging he and my aunt adelina left for america in 1947 we were all supposed to go together but we couldn t obtain the proper visas uncle and aunt traveled to argentina first and later emigrated to the united states at that time the quota for italian immigrants was much smaller than for other immigrants from northern europe our house went from being very crowded people sleeping everywhere to suddenly eerily empty my mother cried from the moment we left the house and through the next day after the departure i remember tony saluting the train goodbye by standing at attention just as a soldier would packages from america big pillowcases full of clothes shoes food began to arrive as soon as my relatives reached california about eighteen months later cans of strange sausages salty and gelatinous were stuck in the middle of the pillowcases not exactly to our taste but meat nevertheless mother sported a new coat that year which fit her perfectly after alterations we began to wear american made clothes and people talked to us as though we were already americani my dad though refused to wear anything the american relatives sent us why do they bother sending this stuff when we are scheduled to join them maybe they have changed their minds maybe they want to shut us up he was counting the days when they would send for us not send their discards for years mother had been trading her sisters trousseau linens for food or farm supplies finally they were being replaced by the good fortune and generosity that made her sister arrive in america when i began to write and was put in charge of responding to letters i would add my own commentaries zia i would say it s so good to know you are finding such abundance it must feel as though you are in paradise after the scarcity you left behind mother would hear the letters and question my round about ways tell her we need to leave now don t beat around the bushes tell her that we sacrificed for her she can t be selfish mother was always looking for ways to improve our lot she had taken me to line ups at the american war camps to receive shots of quinine to prevent malaria a line up to get vitamin pills or cans of ddt dad grumbled not trusting any medicine given out freely once she dragged me screaming and fussing to a louse treatment line up making sure my hair was deloused whether i liked it or not a most foul smell lingered around us for days at nursery school the nuns separated those of us with funny smells and made us stand in the back away from everybody else one of my earliest memory was being held between zia adelina s knees squeezed so i wouldn t escape as she killed the lice and pulled the zits out of my hair with vigor and tenacity one at a time a task that tired us both the pain and indignation and the fear of being consumed by lice made me cry the entire time lice and other infestations were rampant during the war years many children died of malnutrition or parasitic infections i had intestinal problems as a child pin worms tape worms and assorted stomach and digestive problems shared by many children in my town again medications and treatments could be had at the american posts we all depended on these make shift generous medicinal dispensaries if there was something that would make me and my brother get an advantage in life mother took us to that line up mother had enormous faith that her brother and sister would eventually find a way for all of us to join them in america every year she started a novena on this pursuit a novena that might go on longer than most months on end necessitating many prayers additional visitations to the patron saint appropriate for such a miracle and a special diet too on this particular one since it was such a big miracle one that might take years to bring about she gave up meat entirely giving up any food was difficult when one has so little to eat but giving up meat when one has meat just once or twice a week and not enough to feel full and contented but just enough to resuscitate the meat loving glands in your appetite apparatus that was a major sacrifice for this one she prayed to saint christopher not too well known in our parts she had given me the task to find the appropriate saint not san rocco he had the entire town praying to him not the madonna delle grazie way too many people occupied those pews every morning she wanted an important figure one with power and persuasion one who would get an immediate audience with god himself i found saint christopher patron saints of travelers great she had never heard of him but trusted my reading and researching abilities we were going to be great travelers if saint christopher took us as clients how do we do the novenas for this saint i made up the rest since no book in the archdiocese specified this stage a saint for travelers i told her needs plenty of songs to help pass the time songs she inquired incredulously the songs we sang in church were hymns intermixed with recitations yeah songs like o sole mio mamma santa lucia as a matter of fact there is probably a town dedicated to him we should visit the town attend the feast in his name and get on his good side don t we attend special feast days and give our thanks to special saints you are right she said i expected father to object what is this he might say where does she get these ideas we don t send her to school to come up with these money spending thoughts we have no business traveling somewhere just to pray but he didn t and he would have gone along with the idea until something else happened he got a job the first thank god job that kept him out of the house for months at a time he became a guard for the agrarian reform movement a land redistribution program that occurred after the war splitting up big land holdings and allowing people to homestead purchase in time mortgage in labor kind of program farm residences were being built on five acres of land each some places were kilometers apart father s job was to travel to each one unexpectedly spend the night with the shepherds or whoever camped there and try to keep a presence in the field when zia adelina wrote that roses had thorns her code phrase for things are complicated and painful mother knew in her heart that only a miracle could precipitate the right action she didn t know what was troubling her sister but whatever it was mother was going to pray for it to dissipate the promise that was america stood on an altar in our house right next to the madonna delle grazie mother s patroness and the added saint christopher america was the same as heaven when i argued with her that we needed to learn english to have a chance at surviving in america she dismissed my worries what how did my sister manage she didn t speak english mamma that s one reason she might be having trouble they speak english not italian mother thought that people all over the world were the same speaking basically the same with just a few variations as in the dialect she heard from people who visited the town on saint rocco s feast day dialects are not different languages but different inflections even different expressions she thought everyone in the world spoke a form of italian didn t the romans occupy the known world we took official sets of pictures and got ready to go at a moment s notice the town continued to buzz with news of our imminent fortune my family never emigrated uncle returned to italy eight years later in 1955 after uncle giuseppe died and the property was divided my big brother tony had left for work in milano mother had a new toddler to care for by now all our hopes had dried up america was no longer our destination i was the only one who emigrated for america in 1959 my experience was not an easy one but i completed my studies obtained a teaching job and got married my mother and my younger brother luigi visited me each for an extended amount of time when i lived in los angeles they saw first hand how we lived how we too struggled to attain the dream their lives had been enriched because americans were generous the marshall plan had helped italy recover from the war in many ways the land reform allowed many people the opportunity to work the land and own it after a while houses were built loans were made opportunities handed out generously father s job provided steady cash income that helped me continue with my studies past the fifth grade my parents always looked to the future when times would get easier when their children would break the cycle of poverty whatever strength they had they poured it into making sure each of us had opportunities and education my journey is coming to an end i will never feel totally at home anywhere italy is my first home italy is a mother s hug and a father s praise but italy feels foreign now through sheer willpower i make my home where i find myself i think of all who emigrated who left what and whom they loved what they knew we can return but we have changed in a fundamental way we are saddened by the change saddened that we lost our connections to our past nothing is the same we are the outsiders now the americani we take comfort in the fact that our children will not have to feel this loss my children will not understand these feelings i am two three hours away from each of them by car or by plane they get to come back home anytime they wish we get together anytime we need to be but their roots are shallow and their branches are not truncated they only know what is in front of them in my dreams i m back home in the same little house everyone around me having a big sunday meal only then i feel who...