Page 38 - A Life - my Live - my path

The journey - coal miner’s community

At my paternal grandparents' house, the two mothers had
prepared a special meal, and when my parents returned
from church, they were greeted by a wonderful meal. On my
father's side, the whole family was there. On my mother's
side, only her mother attended. Her brother, who lived in
Vasto, was too far away to come back, and the two brothers
who lived in San Giovanni Lipioni had to look after the
animals and the daily chores.
In the afternoon, two of my mother’s cousins came to
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liven up the wedding and sang until midnight. At the end of
the evening, my maternal grandmother and my mother
returned to the village with the two cousins.
My parents stayed with their respective parents for
another 15 months. The reasons for this were, on the one

hand, the lack of space in my paternal grandparents' house
and, on the other, the fact that neither my mother nor my
father had put together their wedding trousseau .
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35 Daniele et Bruno sons of zio Peppe
36 Traditionally, the bride's trousseau was carefully put together over the years
by her mother, grandmother and the bride herself. A trunk was packed with
hand-embroidered bed linen, clothes, tablecloths and napkins, jewellery
handed down from mother to daughter, crockery, etc.
Today, the wedding gift list is a substitute for the bride's trousseau.
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