Well, that was a tear-jerker. Beautiful, but so sad. Rings true.
My new buffet came yesterday, and it is the perfect place to display his nice photo and his veteran's flag in its case. I have his police uniform in the entry closet--the shoulder emblem "Police Department City of New York" shows clearly when you open the door. I really have moved on in a lot of ways, but my good old paisan will never be forgotten and will always be part of my life, God bless him.
Elizabeth - I'm familiar with the word paisan because my husband is Italian & his family used that word often. I just assumed that you or your husband are of Italian or Spanish descent??
Hi, Nicky--no, I'm not a drop Italian. But Larry was 100% Italian. His parents were from the countryside around Naples, and his birth certificate actually says "Lorenzo" , although everywhere else for the rest of his life it was "Lawrence."
Elizabeth - was your husband born in Italy? My husband is also 100% Italian. He & his older sister were both born in Canada - his parents came to Canada in 1948. His parents came from northern Italy - province of Pordenone in the region of Friuli. Being from the north, the family does not look Italian. In fact his maternal grandmother had strawberry blonde hair & our son has red hair & blue eyes - hb has blue eyes.
Larry and I went to Italy once--had a wonderful time--I think I liked it more than he did! I think everybody should go to Italy at least once in their life. It really is a cradle of so much of our civilization. I really had no idea--the beauty, the history, the culture--just an amazing place. Larry was American-born, but they spoke Italian at home when he was a child. His mother had come to the States when she was 4, so she spoke good English. His father had come as a young man, and never really learned it, although he tried--used to read the kids' schoolbooks and write things out in English in school notebooks, trying to learn. I never knew the parents, as they had both died before I met Larry. Larry always told me that he did not speak Italian--and I never heard him speak a word of it--until we went to Italy. After a couple days, he was speaking Italian easily with everybody. Just amazing. And when we came back to New York, he never uttered another word of Italian again in his life. Strange but true. Of the eight surviving kids, Larry and one brother had blue eyes, as did their mother. Other than that, it was all dark hair and brown eyes.
Elizabeth - that's interesting. My husband's family also spoke Italian at home & his parents learnt English & spoke it with an Italian accent. When my husband started kindergarten he didn't speak English, but fortunately his teacher was Italian so she was able to communicate with him - lucky for him. When our children were young, my mother-in-law spoke to them in Italian so they could learn the language. My children already spoke English & French & for a little while my daughter was easily speaking & switching from English to French to Italian depending on whom she was speaking to. Amazing how children learn so quickly. Our daughter took an Italian course in university, but doesn't speak it now, nor does our son. My husband still spoke Italian with his parents after we were married, but forgot a lot of it after they passed away. Sometimes I wonder if he'd still understand it now since it was his mother tongue??
We never did visit Italy & his parents never went back. I was hoping once we retired we would make that trip, but that was not to be....