I have been in ITALY!!!!
Yes, after more than 2 years I was finally able to see my family again, and have them meet my youngest one, which they had never seen, if not in pictures.
I have had the opportunity to show many of them some of my creative genealogy projects, and I must say, they loved them all!!!
I got many of them much more interested in sharing pictures and stories, and you can bet I will soon follow up on that;)!
My aunt Carmela finally showed me the pictures of 3 of my great grandparents, Antonio Iannone, Francesca Iannone and Antonio Sannazzaro, her grandparents, which I had never seen, giving me the opportunity to add them up to my family tree.
What was even more meaningful to me, was to be able to go visit my grandma's sister, who is now 92.
I really had wished to be able to see her this time, since last time I went to Italy, she was in Germany, and so I wasn't able to visit her.
What I didn't know, was that we were sharing the same desire...
She had been telling my cousins, when she would go visit them, to please tell me and my siblings(who live in England) to go visit her, because she wanted to see the children of her dear nephew(my father) before she died.
Oh the hugs that she gave me!
We also shared our common desire to be in Italy. She had been living in Germany for tens of years, all of her children are there, but she just had to come back to Italy, to her home. She wants to die there.
How much I understand her!!!
I asked her about her memories of my father and my grandma, and even if she couldn't tell me any story in particular, she confirmed me how good a person was my dad, how much everybody respected him, and told me that the same was for her sister (my grandma), who died at age 35, of childbirth, together with her baby.
I will never forget the 2 hours we spent together, having a simple lunch, and talking, sharing our deepest desires.
I pray I will be able to come back soon with all of my family, and have many more opportunities to go visit her!
In Italy I have also been able to do some genealogy work, both for a client, and for my Santoriello side of the family, but I will talk about that in a later post.
For now, I just wanted my friends to know that I wasn't MIA at all, but I was following my heart desire and pursuing my passions with all my energies!
More to come soon!!!
2 comments:
Congratulations on a wonderful trip! So glad you got to meet your grandma's sister and she you. It sounds like a trip never to be forgotten.
Thank you Kathy.
I never got to know my grandma, since she died before I was born, and her sister is the closest connection I have to her, so yes, I will never forget this trip.
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