Archive for July 1st, 2010

I doubt my Grandpa has ever finished fifth grade. Yesterday, June 30th he would be 97. Born in Polignano a Mare, a village in the eastern coast of the Italian boot, moved to Brazil where he worked since he was a child, leading a very hard life. Back to Italy for the military service, he married and built a family, until he had to emigrate again to Brazil in 1950.

He betrayed my Grandma once, during the time they lived apart, she with the children in Italy, he in Brazil working to gather the money for their tickets. Evidently, the extra conjugal relationship continued after Grandma arrival, and went on until the day she suspected something, as he walked out in the Sundays afternoon, well dressed and perfumed (he was Italian!). Grandma took her two daughters by hand, my Mother and my Aunt, and the three women of the house followed him. When his mistress opened the door to welcome him in, Grandma – who also didn’t completed elementary school but was no fool – shouted, from the other side of the street: “Shame on you! How could you, a married man, with children! What a shame!” And various other adjectives in dialect I could not repeat. Read the rest of this entry »