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Art Colony: nonno
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
› by victoria
My grandfather just died. Apparently, my mom is in Italy already today (or will be in italy today) at 7 PM. I am so saddened by this, but I don't think I will be able to cry for at least a while.
One of the things that I will admit is that I will be way more likely to cry with all the star wars stuff bouncing around nowadays. My grandfather, or "Nonno" as we all just called him, looked--in his later years--very Yoda-esque. I mean, I think that's why I like Yoda so much as a character. Except instead of pronouncing stuff about The Force, Nonno would say things like "Sei brava, e bella. Sei precisa dell'tuo padre." {you are good, and beautiful. You look just like your father.}
He prayed devoutly every day. Nonno could do anything, macho Italian guy stuff wise... He was so tough that one time, when his motorcycle crashed in the 1950's, he rolled something like 50 feet on a gravel road and didn't even get a scratch thanks to his leather jacket. He would smile. He mellowed out as he got older.
One of the coolest things we ever got to do with Nonno was when he drove his white FIAT--back when my grandparents were able to live in their own apartment--with tons of empty bottles inside and me and my younger sister, and he drove us all down to a real spring. A mineral water spring, bubbling out of the ground, and we all went and filled up those bottles together. It was incredibly beautiful, and like a trip back to some other time, because I couldn't imagine drinking water that came out of the ground in America.
Maybe I am taking this with so much distance because I have reached a new height of sleep deprivation. But I feel that my Nonno had already moved on in his heart to a better place before he passed on. I feel sad.
I have to take a time-out, before I go, to say a thank you to Robin, and Jill, and Katie, and Anne, and everyone who has taken a second to give me a word of encouragement, or, if you're like Jill and Robin, thrown open the doors of their home to welcome me in and help protect and save me from the mad problems of life. Thank you.
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