I'll start with Mom, mostly because I don't know a whole lot about her life before Dad. I know that she spent a long time in school because she had a Ph.D. in Music. She also played in a symphony orchestra. Her full name was Adele Vincenza Paoli, and her sister's name was Amalia. Our Italian grandparents were named Raffaele and Felicina (Rossi) Paoli. Amalia married her first cousin, with the Pope's permission, and had three children: Maria Adelaide (Made), Raffaela (Raffa), and Susanna. Made still lives in Bologna, where Mom and her family were from. She is married to Roberto, the Italian Factory Rep for Ducati motorcycles, and has a son - Ricardo - who is a Ducati test rider. Raffa lives in Cuneo, and is married to Beppe, an oncologist. They have one son, Giovanni. Susanna is, I think, the black sheep. I have never spoken to her or heard from her, and I believe that she lives in or near Rome.
Apparently, there was love in Mom's life before she met Dad because she was engaged to someone else when she met the American soldier. Who was that other guy? What did he do? Did they meet during WWII, or did they meet beforehand? Mom was a nurse during the war. I think that during a war, it must be easy to fall in love and share the hard times with someone. Did she play the violin much during the war? Was she glad to give up nursing and go back to music when it was all over? I think so. Was her fiancè part of her music past or nursing past, or none of the above?
I recall an incident when the topic of this other man arose. Dad flew into a jealous rage over a man representing an incident in Mom's life that occurred before he ever met her. What caused that? Was it just jealousy? I'm not sure. I suspect that Mom's decision to break off her engagement did not happen easily.
Does anyone remember more? Do you, too, have unanswered questions? I don't recall that Mom talked about those early years very much. I have almost nothing on the Paoli side of the family, but Made and Raffa sent me some info, including a tree, of the Rossi side. At some point, I'll make copies of that and send it out.
I cannot wait to see the family tree! Make me a copy.
Loves, S
Posted by: Shaun Paddock | 02/23/2009 at 08:32 AM
Well, I may be able to shed some light. But the person we should pull in here is Angela. She will know a lot and can enlighten all of us. She grew up with Mom and is Mom's first cousin, I think. I also believe that Mom was engaged to Angela's brother or something like that. The blow up was when I had come back from Europe and mentioned to Mom and Dad that I had gone to Bologna and met Angela's mother and brother. Dad blew up and went nuts. That was what trigged the whole thing.
Mom was engaged to someone else. She was a musician and a nurse. She could not practice nursing in America as her certificate was not good here and she would have had to take courses here to qualify to nurse here. But she did play the violin here. She played in the NO Philharmonic Orchestra. She went every Wednesday night. She wore a black shirt and white blouse. I remember her leaving the house with her violin case. After Christy was born, she gave it up. She just couldn't keep all that up with 3 kids.
The way Mom and Dad met was sweet. Dad was the Master Sergeant. the war was over and the troops were waiting to be shipped back to the States. Dad was in charge of entertainment. He had the jeep. He would go pick up the local orchestra and bring them to entertain the soldiers. Yes, Mom was one of the violinist. When he first saw her he signaled her to sit in the front seat of the jeep. Grandpa Raffe found out and took Mom's violin away and locked her in her room. Mind you, she was 33 at the time but was engaged to, I believe, Roberto (Angela's brother). Dad was distressed and finally got the courage to go confront Grandpa Raffe. He asked to marry Mom. Grandpa Raffe finally gave his permission. But he told Mom that if she did this and went to America, if things did not work out that she was never to return. In other words, practically disowned her.
Mom never went back home and never saw her family again. When I was 10 I remember coming home from school and finding Mom crying in the middle of the dining room. She was clutching a letter. It was from her sister letting her know that her mother was dead and already buried. Months later came the news of her dad. They died a few months apart, very similar the the short span between Dad and Mom.
Earlier than that we were all supposed to go to Italy to meet our Grandparents and other relatives. We all got out shots and passport photos. I still have those photos. It's the one where I'm wearing a red and navy blue taffeta dress posing like Sofia Loren. Charlie is in a tan tweed suit looking very dapper. I don't remember Christy's photo for that event. She was so small she was probably in Mom's passport. They do that with babies. Charlie and I were about 6 and 7. So Christy was about 2.
Anyway, we never made that trip. I would get sick quite often: tonsils, etc. Keeping up my image, I got sick and the trip was cancelled. The plane we were to travel on went down and everyone was killed. That is the reason Mom and Dad never flew again and never went back to Europe. There was some talk later about trying again but they could never agree on flying all in one plane. They wanted to go in separate planes with the kids split up so if one plane went down we all wouldn't be wiped out. Well, no agreements were ever reached and I was 14 before my first plane trip.
OK, enough for tonight. This is really great!!
Posted by: Aunt Anna | 02/23/2009 at 09:51 PM
Amazing. I am so glad that I started this.
Posted by: Shaun Paddock | 02/24/2009 at 05:56 PM