Page 34 - A Life - my Live - my path
P. 34

The journey - coal miner’s community


              My mother was born in 1929, my father in 1927.
              My  father  had  a  sister   and  two  brothers ,  he  was  the
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              youngest. He never knew his eldest brother, who had left for
              the United States with my grandfather before he was born.
              Between 1912 and 1926, over a period of more than fourteen
              years, my grandfather crossed the Atlantic several times. He
              worked on the construction of railway lines. After a few years
              living on the outskirts of New York, he told his son that he
              was  going  to  return  to  San  Giovanni  Lipioni  to  see  the
              family, but that he would come back a few months later, but
              he never did. His son blamed him for the rest of his life and
              never returned to Europe.
                 My mother had three brothers . Her father  died from a
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              snakebite when she was two years old. Her second brother
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              and her mother  were her primary carers.
                 Her family lived in the village, not far from the church.
              Outside the village, they owned a farmhouse with a vegetable
              garden,  a  vineyard  and  fruit  trees.  When  she  wasn't  at
              school, my mother oversaw the household chores.
                 In the morning, before leaving with her two sons to go to
              work in the countryside, my grandmother would knead the
              dough and leave it to rest wrapped in a towel. As soon as my
              mother came home from school, she had to follow the usual
              instructions :  tidy  up  the  house,  rework  the  dough  by


              22   Aunt Marietta born in 1907.
              23   My uncles Matteo born in 1911 et Nazarioborn in 1904.
              24   My uncles Oreste, Tullio et Felice
              25   ROSSI Felicetto
              26   My uncle Tullio
              27   My grandmother ROSSI Rosina
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