This is a story about a large Italian-American family living in Astoria, Queens in New York City. It is a story about hard-working grandparents and parents who owned and operated a small Italian-American grocery store located on Ditmars Blvd. and whose lives were totally dedicated to raising a family of five boys and two girls. It is a story that at times is very sad but very poignant in the sense that the story, as chronicled in the following pages, tells the typical tale of immigrants who knew that hard work and sacrifices had to be made in order to provide a better life for their children and grandchildren. We now know all too well what wonderful parents they were and wish we would have told them so at the time they shared their lives with us.
More information about the Tragnas is on this website (COMING SOON) with photos of the ships our family took coming from Italy.
On April 22, 1908, when horse and buggies still lined the streets of Manhattan, Mama, Angelina, was born to Rosalie and Guiseppe Martorano. Mama was born with the aid of a mid-wife, whom Mama said made a mess of the delivery. Because of this, our grandmother was unable to bare any more children, and so Mama grew up as a lonely, only child.
When our mother was a little girl, our grandparents heard from their Italian friends that there was work in Pennsylvania, so the whole family relocated to PA from NYC, but the only work they found there was with a pick and shovel in the coal mines! Our mother almost lost her life when, as a little girl, while she was playing with her cousin, she fell into a deep hole in the outhouse toilet. Thank God she was saved when her cousin went to get help from my grandparents. When they found her, she was standing shoulder high in human waste! Fortunately, they were able to rescue her unharmed.
After moving back to NYC, Mama lived with her parents on 29th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue near Belleview Hospital in Manhattan. They had a cold water railroad apartment and shared the only bathroom with three other apartments on the same floor. This bathroom was in the common area outside of the apartments. Each floor in this apartment building had only one bathroom. Imagine having to wait your turn in the morning - and having to heat up your bath water instead of just turning on the hot water faucet like we do now!
When our mother was a little girl, our grandparents heard from their Italian friends that there was work in Pennsylvania, so the whole family relocated to PA from NYC, but the only work they found there was with a pick and shovel in the coal mines! Our mother almost lost her life when, as a little girl, while she was playing with her cousin, she fell into a deep hole in the outhouse toilet. Thank God she was saved when her cousin went to get help from my grandparents. When they found her, she was standing shoulder high in human waste! Fortunately, they were able to rescue her unharmed.
As a young child, Angelina's daily chores after returning from school included getting a pail of coal from the apartment building basement, carrying it several flights to her parent's flat, and placing the coal into a pot belly heating stove since there was no boiler to heat the apartment in those days! Before her parents both came home from work, she also prepared food for dinner, and, of course, did her school homework.
When our mother was a little girl, our grandparents heard from their Italian friends that there was work in Pennsylvania, so the whole family relocated to PA from NYC, but the only work they found there was with a pick and shovel in the coal mines! Our mother almost lost her life when, as a little girl, while she was playing with her cousin, she fell into a deep hole in the outhouse toilet. Thank God she was saved when her cousin went to get help from my grandparents. When they found her, she was standing shoulder high in human waste! Fortunately, they were able to rescue her unharmed.
Hard work was no stranger to our grandparents either. Our grandpa, Guiseppe, worked with a pick and shovel on the 7th Avenue subway line. In those times, on the west side, the 7th Ave. subway was still under construction. Mama always remembered how her father's Irish boss made him take home his work tools every day (both pick and shovel). Grandma Rosalie worked in commercial laundry, washing and folding clothes. The daily work day was ten hours, six days a week with limited lunch and bathroom breaks, and no union to go to for help.
Although I know enough to piece together the Tragna story, much of our family history remains a mystery. I have spoken to all my brothers and sisters, and no one can remember Grandpa talking to them about himself, his family, or even the reasons for him leaving Sicily for America. What I do remember was what my brother, Salvatore, said - that Grandpa, as if in passing, mentioned that as a child, he was an orphan and lived in a family barn.
Grandma's past life was also a mystery. I only remember that Grandma's brother opened a Green Grocer (Vegetable store) on 2nd Avenue and around 61st Street in Manhattan. Since Grandpa, Grandma, and our father had difficulty speaking English and had a very limited vocabulary, the first two children out of seven, Millie and Jackie, spoke to them in Italian! Even with that, all three parents were not talkative and spoke little to their children and grandchildren. Work seemed to be their biggest concern, and they took the business very seriously. This next part of the story tells how our grandparents came to own a grocery store, a business that would become the Tragna family's lifeline, providing all seven grandchildren with enough food and shelter, and at the same time, also consuming almost every waking hour of our grandparents and our parents' time. A poignant, bittersweet truth was that while doing their best to support and provide for the family, no time was left for enjoying vacations or even holidays. It was a hard life, and this is how it began:
Grandpa's work in construction as a laborer didn't last long, and with the aid of a friend, he secured employment as a polisher in a factory that manufactured ice skates. This job was but for a few years since the manufacturer went out of business, whereupon our grandpa heard, through Italian friends, that a small grocery store was for sale. It turned out that two brothers who owned the store could not get along and had many disagreements.
Our grandfather liked the idea and bought the store which was located under an elevated subway line near 62nd Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. After buying this business, a short time later, the same brothers who sold their business to grandpa wanted to buy back this store at a great profit to grandpa. But he would have no part in selling back this store which at this time was so successful that Grandma quit her job and also Mama quit high school after only two years of schooling to work full-time at this new business. They also lived above the store, giving new meaning to the idea of work being your whole life.
Our mother, Angelina, at this point worked 7 days a week, 12-14 hours daily until her retirement at age 60. For 45 years without a single vacation - open 365 days a year including Christmas and New Years! She worked liked a dog, tired, but always kept going, and she never complained.
While the grocery store was very successful, another business - a secret business - was being conducted in the store's basement. Below the store was a double cellar, one room for storing business items, and the other for making wine and hard liquor. Grandpa knew how to make wine from when he lived in Italy, and it was very simple to figure out how to boil whiskey from sugar and hops. And this all happened during the time of Prohibition! People were adventurous then; they did things on their own. Grandpa, especially, flaunted convention, never taking religion or politics seriously. He was a very colorful character, and perhaps even a bit eccentric at times (his life could almost be made into a movie!)
Another story we remember about Grandpa shows a side of him that had nothing to do with work. A friend had contacted him from Ellis Island where, for some reason, the friend was being held up, possibly to be deported back to Italy. Grandpa came up with a plan to get his friend out of Ellis Island by visiting him wearing two sets of clothes. He looked like a well-dressed businessman. When visiting someone on Ellis Island, you were given a card showing how many people in your party. Grandpa was given a card with a number one on it. After being let into a private room, he gave his friend the second set of clothes, and Grandpa changed the number one to a number two, allowing them to walk out together, leaving the Island without being caught!
Now back to the store on 62nd Street and 2nd Avenue. After several years at this successful location, Day and Myer, Murray and Young, a long-term storage warehouse, needed this location for a new building and paid our grandparents $10,000 to vacate. NOTE - At this time, this was like a ton of money of which grandpa gave to our mother $3,000 because she would need this money to maybe marry and raise a family, which she did - and that's a whole other story!
The way our parents met is classic boy meets girl, girl chases boy away, boy persists and wins the girl, except that in their case, he was 25 and she was just 16 when they met! Our father, Joseph, was told in Italy that there was an attractive young girl for him in America, and when he came here, he fell madly in love with her. He hung around her like a pest. Of course, being 16 and still in high school and in no rush to get serious, Angelina chased him away, finding him very pushy. She eventually quit school to work in the store, and all the while, Joseph never gave up. When Angelina reached 19, he came again to woo her, and she accepted. How romantic!
Another interesting story to be told at this point is that before Grandpa sold the store, many times neighborhood thugs from Manhattan would want to sell him gallon tins of imported olive oil. Finally he said yes, but after three cases of olive oil were delivered, our grandfather opened a can and discovered that inside was only water - tap water! He said that never again would he deal with shadowy characters - no matter what!
The family for whatever reason then moved their home and business from Manhattan to Astoria on Steinway Street between 23rd Avenue and Astoria Blvd. There the business was terrible - even today, 80 years later, this area for any business means slow, financial death. The block cannot support even a decent business. The area wasn't established and is still like that today. But even if that location didn't produce much profit, it did produce Millie and Jackie, who were both born on Steinway!
I don't remember much of this building - only that we rented there and lived next to a vacant lot that was owned by the church, which at the time probably didn't seem like a big deal; however, this building was demolished 20 years later to make room for the Immaculate Conception Church in 1950. At the time the Catholic Church bought this building, our place of business and home, our mother was given only six months to move out! In this short time, she needed to find an apartment for a family of 11 and also another location for her business.
I mention that our mother made all the decisions because our father could not speak English very well and only completed two years in Elementary School in Italy and could not read or write English. In other words, he was illiterate, and she, having completed two years of high school, was the educated one. She wore the pants - a woman ahead of her time! Angelina made all the business and financial decisions at 21 years old. So our parents did buy a building at 29-11 Ditmars (just three buildings over) and paid $10,000, buying out the lease of the flower shop at this location. This buy-out was absolutely necessary because of the time constraints imposed by the Catholic Church and also the necessity of reopening the business as quickly as possible. That must have been a horrible time because of the uncertainty involved. What would have happened if she couldn't find a new home or building? Finding a place with enough room for eleven people must not have been easy!
Yet another interesting story to tell at this time was when Papa was kidnapped at that time by the Black Hand, a forerunner of today's Mafia. These gangsters kept Papa in captivity and would phone our grandfather, demanding money for his safe return. But Grandpa, who was too proud and thick-headed, who also remembered all too well the incident in Manhattan, would not deal with these thugs. On one occasion, our mother recalled hearing Grandpa over the phone telling them that we had no money for the ransom and that they can keep Papa and not release or return him! After three days and nights, the Black Hand released him unhurt in the middle of the Queensboro Bridge, at which time Papa walked the three miles home all alone.
We can only imagine the terror and fear our father must have felt being held captive and fearing for his very life! Understandably, Papa never forgot this betrayal, and so an underlying tension existed between Grandpa and Papa for many years. Perhaps Papa felt deep disappointment in his father-in-law's refusal to negotiate for his safe release; we would never know however, for, surprisingly, our father never spoke of this incident to any of his children. We learned of this incident only after our parents retired, and then, only from our mother. In looking back, it's quite possible that they didn't want us to know because it might have given us a negative impression of our grandfather, which they didnt want to happen. Not telling us was perhaps their way of protecting us. After all, Papa could have been maimed or even killed. In any case, it was quite a story!
During the Great Depression, which lasted ten years, our parents and grandparents just managed to make a living because at that time at least 25% of the work force was without work, and those that did have a job were afraid that they would be laid off. We lived from hand to mouth!
Then World War II started and everybody had work and a job and were employed in the defense industry. Our parents made tons of money, and in 1944, purchased a large, two-family house on 22-21 29th Street - with all cash and without a mortgage - for $11,000!
After 20 years at the new business location, and after we children had grown up, married, and had our own careers, our parents retired. Our father was 69, and our mother was only 60. The building was sold several years later in 1978 for $105,000, and then by the new Greek owners in 2004 for $950,000. The new owner renovated the entire building and added a third floor. Now, you can see from the photograph, that the building is no longer a two-story structure, but a three-story building, the new addition costing several hundred thousand dollars! Angelina had always felt that Astoria was and always will be a good business area.
An interesting story at this point was when Mama fell over what she thought was a staircase step in Alexander's Department Store in Manhattan. Mama fractured her leg and was rushed to New York Hospital where, after two days of pain, had an operation to reset her leg with a metal plate and screws. Two years later in her 80's, Mama fell in the Eckard Drug store here in Astoria. In both cases, my brothers, Joe and Charles, secured a great law firm to sue for pain and loss of health and in both cases, Mama settled out of court for $265,000 before lawyers' fees and expenses. My brother, Salvatore, always said in jest that Mama did not fall for fun, but fell for profit and financial gain for her children.
Despite having had success with the grocery store, Mama had dreamed of a different life for herself when she was younger. When she was a young girl in school, Mama enjoyed her classes and had good grades in all her subjects. On many occasions, Mama would tell me how her goal in life was to become a school teacher, but she had to quit high school after her second year to help her parents in the grocery store, and she never went back to finish her degree. Even when Mama was in her 80s, she told me how she had felt trapped and tied down in life, having to work in the grocery store for forty-five years.
There were many a day that Papa was bent over like a pretzel suffering from an aching back, but even in pain with this injury, he would still work hard full-time in our family business. To my knowledge, while working full-time for my parents in our grocery store, I can say that my parents never had a full day off from work. Both parents and even grandparents worked daily without regards to their personal health. In those days, my parents never believed in sick or personal days off or even a single vacation. My parents never even heard of health, life, or even disability insurance, and there wasn't any extended family member that would loan you money. Working for yourself was emotionally and physically draining. It was sink or swim with no safety net.
As a note to our future generations: please keep in mind that all of my brothers and myself suffered from a "bad back", so don't blame your upbringing nor your parents. This illness goes back many generations - it's just in your genes.
My father was never an overly emotional man. Even while working beside me for ten years in the family business, he never told me that he loved me nor any of my siblings. As the years passed into memory, however, I realized that he was just a very quiet and reserved person, and that his love for us in his eyes was shown by working hard, so that his children could have a better living standard that he only dreamed he could have had.
I grew to love Mama only after several years into her retirement. She would say to me that because of the fact of her being self-employed, she didn't have the time to be as good a mother as she wanted. In truth, she was right! Growing up, it was difficult for me because, in a way, my mother and even my father were never there to meet my needs. For many years, I blamed my mother (It's always the mother and not the father) for this or that. All my concerns, issues, and problems would ferment in my mind because of her always working and not having time for me or, for that matter, my siblings.
But this came to pass with time because, in her golden years of retirement, we both had a chance to talk our issues through. In her 70s and 80s, we slowly came to realize our mistakes and accepted that we were both human beings with all the imperfections that entails. I accepted her for what she was and grew to love her for what she became. In Mama's 80s, she became more dependent and trusting of me and toward the end of her life, both my brother, Salvatore, and I became her caretakers. I am today very happy to have known Mama and to accept and love what she had done for all her children and myself.
My nephew, John Grimaldi, once said that on a death bed, you would never hear a person say, "I wish I spent more time at the office." What you would hear instead would be, "I wish I spent more time with my family."
Mama died cradled in my arms in New York Presbyterian hospital as I cried and whispered in her ear, "I love you, your children love you, and Jesus loves you."
Our parents and grandparents were wonderful immigrants who worked seven days a week and 18 hours daily, from 5:00 am to midnight, never closing the grocery store for a day off if just only to relax. They made this supreme sacrifice so that we, their children, would have a better life. God bless them.
Footnote: Our uncle, Anthony Tragna, and his wife, Carmela, had two daughters named Carmela (nicknamed May) and Mary. Carmela married Charles Alassandro and they had two sons. Mary Tragna remained single. Anthony Tragna worked at and retired from the American Can Company located in Brooklyn.
The names of all seven children are:
- Carmela (Millie) 1929
- Giacomo (Jack) 1930
- Joseph 1936 Salvatore (Cookie) 1938
- Rosalie 1940
- Anthony 1942
- Charlie 1944
Millie and Jack were born at home with the aid of a midwife on Steinway Street. The rest of us were born in New York Hospital, which is now New York Presbyterian Hospital.
We were all raised in a family of 11 people - our two parents, two grandparents, and seven children. Quite a crowd! Our family had an Italian grocery store business, which at one time was owned by our grandparents. Papa had been a wrought iron worker, but due to the Great Depression, was forced to work at his father-in-laws grocery store. The store was open seven days a week from 6 am to 12 am. At some point in all our lives, we were part of the grocery store doing chores. In all the years we worked at the store, it closed only for a half a day on each occasion when Millie, Jack, Joe, Charlie, and Rosalie got married. Well, after all, they had to attend the weddings! My only recollection of our parents having time off (beside the weddings) was when Papa would go to the Ditmar's Theater and see a movie. Mama would do the same but on a different afternoon, so the store could remain open.
One memory of the store was going to the green market (Washington Market) to purchase fruits and vegetables from vendors' respective trucks. Other mornings we would go to the Italian bakery, which fascinated me with their large ovens and oversized paddles about 10 feet long. The reward of this trip was to slice the warm bread, butter it, and enjoy the flavor once we were home. The truck we owned, which was our only vehicle owned by our parents, was rather old and bounced around a lot. This, in addition to lifting the produce, aggravated our father's back a great deal and often would put him in pain.
Sunday mornings were always busy, so we packed 5 lbs. Of potatoes in brown bags and 2 lbs. of onions in bags to prepare for the church crowd emerging after mass. We would also make special trips to Silver Cup Bakery Sunday morning, and we were the only store providing bread to the local customers. Some of us remember the first frozen food case to come into the store. Many thought that it was a fad and would not last. What helped it catch on was ice cream, concentrated orange juice, and minute steaks. Minute steaks were very thin steaks packed maybe five to a package. Everybody like them because they cooked in a minute.
Papa never learned English well, which meant communication was difficult. He was quiet and very sensitive. I remember an incident when I was about ten years old and made my mother very angry. She turned to my father to discipline me. All he could do was give me a light slap, but I could see and sense the distraught it caused him. He was almost on the verge of crying because he didn't want to hurt his son.
Being a wrought iron worker, he was capable of building and using his hands. He constructed our kitchen cabinets behind the grocery store, which our mother disliked, and he also built a flight of stairs to the store's basement. These accomplishments impressed me.
He put a lot of hours and effort into the business. Having five sons eased some of the work as we would deliver groceries by carrying the bags or using a pushcart. If we were lucky, we got a tip. Mama also worked diligently in the store while raising seven children. She was in charge of ordering and paying the bills. Of course, there was also the job of running a household and that's where our grandmother stepped in. She helped with the cooking and laundry. I can still see them at the sink scrubbing on the washboard. Mama was very concerned that the "new washing machines" were not as efficient in cleaning clothes as she and Grandma were, so we were one of the last families to get a washing machine!
However, we were one of the first to get an RCA TV in 1950. One had to be put on a waiting list for a 10" black and white TV in a large console cabinet. We were constantly using the horizontal and vertical knobs to control a rolling picture and trying to clean up the "snow." Reception improved when a transmitter was installed on the Empire State Building, and we all had roof antennas. It was also believed that watching too much TV was going to make one go blind.
Many people couldn't get an RCA. Either they couldn't afford it or they didnt want to wait. They got a Zenith or a Motorola and they constantly had repairmen over. The apartment rooftops (tar beaches) had dozens of antennae on them. The rooftops looked like a forest of antennae. We called the roofs tar beaches because some of us would go up there just to get a tan. Everybody thought a tan was good to have. Eggs were a health food, and smoking was cool because every movie star smoked. All your friends smoked, and if you didnt, you were the odd one.
Getting back to how Grandma helped in running the household, she also filled in by taking us to Astoria Park where we would have a "pizza picnic". Astoria Park also had an Olympic size pool where we would spend every hot summer day. The playground, with basketball courts, baseball fields, and exercise bars also kept us entertained during the summer months.
Sometimes, Pa would pile all of us into the back of the truck and take us to Whitestone Pool where we would swim and have a picnic. The pool had a large slide that went into it. That was really a fun day. But one day, Joe climbed up a fence to see a hornets' nest up close, and the hornets attacked him. Luckily, Jack went up after him and brought him down safely.
But then some summers were frightening as the polio epidemic became more widespread in crowded areas, and there was always some child in the neighborhood who caught the illness. It wasnt until I was grown up that the vaccine was discovered.
Besides the park, Grandma also took us to the movies, accompanied by a bagful of fruit and sandwiches. We would be in the dark, watching a movie, and she would hand us a ham sandwich or an apple. You were always surprised. She would also pack an extra sandwich for the movie cashier, so the cashier would let us in for free. Grandma also would get free dinnerware (plates and cups) with each admittance into the theater. In fact, those very plates are still being used today by Sal and Anthony!
All eleven of us lived in an apartment above and behind the grocery store at 29-11 Ditmars. Above the store were four bedrooms, one bath, and a living room. Behind the store were two bedrooms, one bath, and a large kitchen. Grandma and Grandpa had one bedroom and Jack, Joe, and Sal had the second bedroom at different times.
Rosalie was a very beautiful, young girl, and she could sing well. She was about ten years old and was in a play in the Immaculate Conception School. She sang well, but the song, "I Don't Want Him, You Can Have Him - He's Too Fat For Me," required her to push a fat kid around the stage. Even though she sang very well, the set up wasn't very nice, but she was not responsible for the set up.
When we were older, Ma would give us 35 cents to go to the movies early (maybe 9:00) in the morning. The movie was 25 cents, and the candy was 5 cents. We would see a chapter (a short film), maybe five cartoons, and two movies; however, the movies were shorter then - maybe one hour and fifteen minutes. You had to sit in the children's section and they had a matron dressed in white with a flashlight who made sure nobody misbehaved. Sometimes, we would sneak to the adult section and stay for the second adult feature movies in the afternoon.
Another memory I have is that every morning, Grandma would squeeze fresh orange juice from oranges she had in the refrigerator. It would help us swallow the castor oil when we werent feeling well. They later came out with castor oil pills. We all thought that was a big improvement because they didnt taste awful like the castor oil.
Joe, Sal, and Charlie went to Power Memorial Academy on Amsterdam Avenue and 63rd Street in Manhattan. They would take the subway to 57th Street and walk across Central Park to get to school. The Christian Brothers of Ireland taught there and were very strict. Sometimes, they would hit the students. Can you imagine what would happen today if they still did that!?
Jack served in the Air Force in Korea during the war. Joe was in the Marines in Okinawa during peace time. Sal was in the Air Force in the States, and Charles was in the National Guard in the States.
We used to call Sal "Cookie" because he was very cute. Millie was the one who first started calling him that. When he got older, he got angry if you called him Cookie, so then we started calling him Sal.
Next door to us was the OShea Funeral Home (which is still there on Ditmars Blvd). The OSheas had 12 children, and almost all of the seven Tragna children had an OShea in class with them in the Immac. The O'Sheas were very nice but were aloof, and during the summer months, they had a summer home in Point Lookout, Long Island, which is next to Jones Beach. We didnt see much of them in summers.
We had a store on 29-05 Ditmars Blvd, and next to the store was an empty lot. During World War II, the lot was used as a victory garden, which was used to grow vegetables to help the war effort. We also helped the war effort by saving fat in jars and taking them to the butcher. There also were rationing stamps to buy meat, sugar, butter, etc. They required that all houses have blackout shades so that the light inside the house could not be seen from the outside. We were also afraid of air raids. The headlights on the cars also had the top half painted black. In the front of every store, near the curb was a hole to put the flagpole into. We had a lot of parades and many American flags would be flying.
The store at 29-05 was actually owned by our next door neighbors, the Jacoby's, who eventually sold the store to the Catholic church because of an offer they couldn't refuse. One day, a man saw Ma and said the church wanted us out in 6 months. They wanted to build the new church on the land which was the vacant lot and which our store was on. Ma said we were a family of eleven and had a business, and we needed more time to look around for a place to live.
The church responded by advising the people attending mass not to buy in our store. They also expelled Joe, Sal, Rose, Anthony, and Charlie out of their classes in the Immaculate Conception School. We were sent to the Mother Superior's office, where we were told by the Mother Superior that we could not go to school there anymore. It did, however, seem that the nuns really didnt like following Pastor Higgins' instructions because when Ma saw them, they indicated they would try to get us back into class as soon as possible. Even so, we were all reassigned to different public schools. While we were still working at 29-05, a power shovel began digging in the vacant lot. We could look out our kitchen window and see them working, just waiting for us to be out of there so they could start tearing down the building.
The way the church had forced us out upset Ma a great deal, and she ended up paying a lot of money to buy the store at 29-11 Ditmars and also paying $10,000 to have a florist break his lease so we could move in right away. We all went back to the Immac that following January, but needless to say, that whole experience left a sour taste in our mouths towards the church.
Ma was a very strong woman and a smart business woman too. She handled looking for a new place to live and work and all the finances herself. She also refused to become entangled in a fight with the Catholic church even though the pastor was dead wrong and anything but Christianly. A reporter, from the Long Island Star Journal, once came to see Ma to ask questions about the children's expulsion from the Immac, and Ma refused to talk with the reporter because she knew that a public fight with the church would possibly hurt her and her family's future business, and she had worked too long and too hard to let anything ruin her familys chances at a decent life. Ma also resumed going to church because she said, "Even though I've lost faith in the priest, I still have faith in Jesus and I'm still going to go to church to pray."
Addendum:
Our father's parents had ten children: five sons and five daughters.
All five sons were named after our uncles in Italy and one uncle in America who lived in Brooklyn, and his name was Anthony Tragna.
Mama was born in Manhattan on 29th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. Back then, it was common to have a mid-wife deliver your baby, and despite living very close to a hospital, our grandmother stayed home and Mama was born with the aid of a mid-wife. Unfortunately, this mid-wife made a mess of the delivery, making it impossible for our grandmother to have anymore children. That is why Mama was an only child.
Living with us were Mama's mother and father. Without their help and support, we could not have made it. Our grandmother was a kind and loving person, who did all she could to help the family. Grandpa also worked hard for the family, working mornings in the store from 6:00 am until lunch time, giving our father time to go to the vegetable market to buy fresh produce which he sold in the store.
Mama's parents were born in Italy, and their last name was Martorano.
I am continuing what was left off by my sister, Millie (Carmela Grimaldi). My sister writes that Mama was the only child of Rosalie and Joseph Martorano. This is not true. She had a brother who died at about seven months old. Our mother, Angelina, recounted to me that one day in the strawberry fields, our grandmother, Rosalie, fed some freshly-picked strawberries to her infant son and then let the infant breast feed from her. Sadly, for whatever reason unknown to her, her baby boy died shortly after.
Mama would talk about him from time to time and would wonder what kind of a brother he would have been. She missed him very much although she never met him because he died before she was born. She would tell me that she hated being the only child.
My sister also writes that without Mama's parents' help, they would not have made it. That is absolutely true. They were great grandparents, and Mama was a great daughter as well. She took care of her parents when they became old, literally sacrificing her life to comfort them.
Mama gave too much of herself for her family. To me, that seems very sad because she didn't get much in return. That's why I believe she had such a peaceful death, as if God said, "You have been a very good daughter. Not only did you honor your father and mother, but you gave them your whole heart and soul." Then God put his hand on her heart and she was without any pain. He said, "This good heart has been beating for 88 years. Now it is time to stop and come home to me where I will comfort you." Mama died in the arms of her son, Anthony, at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She died a peaceful death within minutes, knowing Anthony and her family loved her at that sacred moment.
I believe God is speaking to us and is saying, "I know everything that happens on this earth and I will take care of my own." Mama is surely one of His own.