More of Chapter 1
Slowly I climbed up the stairs to the porch, which wrapped around two sides of the house and offered a panoramic view In spite of the overgrowth, you could still see through the trees to the small creek that crossed the property at the bottom of the hill. Even the foot bridge remained. Could the engraved heart with my initials have weathered the elements down through the years? It was so long ago; I was a high schoolgirl with a crush on a boy and a chemistry that propelled me to heaven and back again by his very presence I couldn‘t hold back the tears. Tomorrow he would be laid to rest just a few miles down the road from here.
I wondered if Grandma had sat on these very steps and cried like this. Grandpop died when he was only 38 years old, leaving her alone to raise seven children. Aunt Carrie was barely a year old at the time. Grandma never got over her loss. I remember seeing her standing before his portrait in the living room, talking to him in a tender loving tone. Other times I heard her speaking Italian in the cellar below the kitchen. When she came up, her eyes would be red and filled with tears. She didn’t speak; she just disappeared behind the closed door of her bedroom and didn’t come out until she had regained her composure.
My key turned the lock and the door swung open, revealing an old fashioned dining room — – just as I remembered it. Surprisingly, I felt as if I was stepping out of a time machine. The room was dominated by the same bulky buffet and huge round oak table. In the corner, in its place of honor, was a console RCA radio that was Grandma’s sole source of entertainment. Every day she listened to an Italian station in New York City. Music, news, and soap operas were available to fill her lonely life with entertainment with just a turn of the dial.
more tomorrow
