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Liza's Story (Part 3) written by Liza DeCredico and copyrighted by Liza DeCredico
dlayton@mo-net.com (my e-mail address) ------------------------------------------------------------ Who am I? Where are my roots? Where do I belong?(Part 3) We all went for a walk up and down the busy streets of Chieti. The hand-bricked streets and alleys were full of history. Adalgisa takes us into this store. The man locks the door behind us. Me and my brother are kind of wonder- ing what we stepped into. The other man sets a velvet big bulky package down on the table in front of is. He starts to unroll this red velvet item, slowly. When he gets done, he flips the cloth over from being doubled. Here is at least 40 pockets full of Gold items. Earrings, rings, pins, etc..... were inside each pocket. She is purchasing a pair of Gold earrings for Liza and a Gold ring for Davida. We made a few more stops where she had purchased a sweater for me and an outfit for Davida. She also picked us some presents for my family in the United States. She was so proud and full of joy to do these things for us, we accepted them with much Thanks! All week our cousins took us to the "Best" restaraunts and meeting cousins to eat with each time. At one of the restaraunts Adalgisa had arranged a cake that was brought out with our names on it. The message written said "Good Luck" in Italian. We now headed back to Tommaso's house. It was the night before leaving Italy, on our way back to the United States. We were relaxing in the living room. Maria was preparing dinner. As I observed her preparing dinner, she had just chopped lamb and placed it on this small hand grill. She wasturning it over and over to make sure it was done. She was cooking this in the kitchen fireplace. I was very amazed at how she was cooking our food. I was not only learning about them, they were teaching me my Italian Heritage and I didn't even know it. We sat at the table that Maria worked so hard to prepare. Her food was wonderful! I kept saying, "Maria, Restaraunt in America?" we would all laugh! It was now time to pack our suitcases for home. We didn't bring much with us. We got what we had with us and packed it up. It was a little snug, but, we managed. Once we were done, we headed down stairs and set the luggage by the front door entrance for easy access in the early morning hours. Now, we headed in the kitchen for Coffee, for me it was "Bitter" (an italian drink). It tastes like pop. All the sudden the door bell rings. It was a lot of cousins we visitited throught the week. They not only came to visit, but they were each carrying many, many presents. We looked over at our suitcases and back at all of them. We were in a lot of trouble for we had no more suitcases. We ended up borrowing from our cousins to get everything home. We visited taking many photo's and shooting video of all of us together, so that we could all remember these great moments forever. It was time for everyone to leave for the evening. A night full of much sadness and tears. If it was so wonderful to find all of my family, then why did I feel so miserable inside? We received several phone calls from other cousins from their homes. Luckily I had a cousin present that could translate to them, that I loved them and I promised to come back someday, again. It was 4:00 am in the morning. We loaded the suitcases. Tommaso and Maria are taking us to the airport. We are all so tired. No sleep all week. It was freightening for Tommaso to drive that early in the morning with all the curvy roads, but, we made it, safely to the airport. We are checking our bags in at the Leonardo Divinchi Airport. We all sit down on the benches. We are dreading the moments ahead of us to say our "Good-Byes." We parted with many tears and very few words, always turning around to get a last glance. I didn't know the exact words for what I was feeling, but my big brown eyes I inherited from my Italian family spoke for themselves at this time. Not knowing if and when I returned in Italy, my cousins would all still be as they were, when I returned. There, preserved in time! I had many questions in my mind at this point, like: "How could my Grand Father leave such a loving, and proud family?" and "How could ne never return to where his roots were?" I myself wanted to live in 2 different worlds. America, a world in which I know how to survive and am proud of, yet, I am always looking for family type friends. And, then there was Italy. A world in which I knew who I was and where I wanted to be and where I knew my true family was at. I felt all the guilt I could for my Grand Father's actions of almost 85 years ago. Upon leaving to arrive in Italy, I was so excited and smiled at everyone around me full of happiness to share. No one on the airplane seemed to have my same feelings. Now I understood them. On my way home, after being in the hospital, having little sleep, drinking around 200 wines, coffee's and bitters, It didn't matter who was sitting next to me, I just wanted to sleep. And, Yes, I learned how to sleep sitting up in the Airplane chairs. I had the trip of my life I enjoyed so much, but, my life that I knew in Italy came to a stop. My cousin Tommaso whom I left in the airport with tears in his eyes, asked one thing of me, whe leaving the airport in Rome. He just wanted me to video the experience of taking off and landing in an airplane. I suppose he was a little nervous about coming to the United States and wanted to see for himself what it was like. I was hand carrying my video recorder and I asked the stewardess if I could tape taking off and she rudely had said "NO!" to me. Now, I had to think to myself. My cousin takes us in, rents a bus so my whole family can meet us at the airport, walks us all around ROme, fees us at the best restaraunts, drives us around all week to meet each cousin, buys us figts and this lady is telling me, That I can not give this little request to my cousin? Well, you should know me by now. I wait until the lady is in her seat. I pick up my video recorder and I point it at my brother. He waves at the camera to Tommaso. (He doesn't really think we should be doing this). Then, I point it towards myself and say "Hello Tommaso, this video is for you!" and I tape what my cousin asks of me. I tape taking off from Rome and I tape going over the Corsica Islands. I also taped landing in New York (which turned out to be Tommaso's favorite part). He enjoyed seeing all the lights lit at night from the airplane. It was beautiful! I finally ran out of batteries, but, I got my video footage and I was very happy,too. |
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Liza's Story (Part 4) written by Liza DeCredico and copyrighted by Liza DeCredico
my e-mail address is dlayton@mo-net.com Who am I? Where are my roots? Where do I belong? We finally arrived at the airport an hour away from our home. Our family was there to greet us. Suprised at our condition that we were in, I could not help but ask the question. "Could we go and get a big mac?" In Italy they have such great food, but, we are not exposed to fast food as we are in the United States. After about 2 weeks of resting and having bad jet leg, our lives were getting back to normal. I copied all of the video tapes and sent a copy to Tommaso and Pasquale. I gave them more than I ever knew I would. I made video's while at each cousins house. But, the cousins that captured my heart the most was Pasquale and his wife Olga. They are in their 70's. We took many photo's and shot a lot of video tape while at their home. They would cry and cry to tell me their lives story while they were young. All the suffering they experienced when they were younger and taken away to concentration camps. Never fed food. Their pain was easy to understand. It was a short visit that I wish would of lasted longer. My cousin Ada, whom know's english, would translate their stories to me and Davida, so we would know their sadness and pain. After we talked for a while, Olga went into the kitchen. She brought out these little home made pizza squares. On each pizza square were flags of Itlay and America. For our cousins Ada, it was Switzerland flags, where she was from. It was humerous and we had to laugh for the nice idea and thoughts of doing this for all of us. We took many photo's, however, when we left, I requested a photo of "Pasquale and Olga" together, alone. And they did what I asked and posed for the photograph. Well back in America at the presernt day. Tommaso had called to tell me that our cousin Olga had Morte.. She had a painless heart attack. Despite all the efforts to bring her to life, she was gone. This I was never really prepared for. I could only listen to TOmmaso cry. I didn't hardly say a word, for I had so much grief for "My Pasquale." How could this happed to his wife Olga. The funeral was the next morning. Liza could not get there that fast, but, I wanted to support him. I picked up the telephone to only hear Pasquales tears and sob's. He was trying to explain to me exactly what happened to Olga. I coudn't understand exactly what he was saying, but, I listened to be there for him.I had sent him the video's and they got them 2 weeks before Olga's death. See, Olga was on these video's a lot. And that photo of Pasquale and Olga that I insisted on? Well I had it made real big and I had it on my wall in my home... I took the photo off of my wall and I mailed it to them. It was a part of him at this time in which I shared with them. I felt like I was sharing a small piece of time with them since I couldn't be there personally. I called him and he just kept saying "Grazie, Grazie, Grazie!" for the photograph. His Olga had been preserved in my photograph with him forever! A memory of our time we all spent together and of much happiness! I stopped my research when I returned home. I had to stop and take a few steps back and look at my life now. It was a lot to handle. It was all like a dream and I had to touch the ground and make sure I was in reality. For the past 5 years of writing to every DiCredico family in 10 countries brought me my family. A family I never knew I had. A few months wet by. I went to my computer and I started doing my family research again. Since then, I have also located my Pietrocola relatives in Argentina and Brazil. I will keep searching forever. I am still searching for one of my Lost Great Uncles named Giuseppe or Joseph Di Credico. He was born on January 25, 1891 in Torrevecchia Teatina Chieti, Abruzzee, Italy. If anyone has any information about this person please contact me. I will be bringing you more stories to my webpages as time goes on and my search continues. Thanks for visiting. Please sign my guestbook for sharing my story with you! Sincerely, Liza DeCredico@ dlayton@mo-net.com https://members.tripod.com/~pippee/index.html or https://members.tripod.com/pippee/grid1.html Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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