For young fellows like them, the war was a chance to become men, to see the world and save it and return home as American citizens. It didn’t occur to either of them that lives would be lost, that the world they were to defend would shift under their feet and never be the same again. They only dreamed of the adventure.
What I wouldn’t give to have known my father with my mother in love-together, you know, just the two of them, in the kitchen laughing, making a sandwich, or holding hands on the street, seeing my father open a car door for my other. The absence of those things are what makes you an orphan-it’s the ordinary everyday expressions of love you miss.
He figured that all the threads of his experience would eventually be sewn together, taking shape in harmony and form to create a glorious work of art.
There was an especially deep bond between the eldest and the youngest. Enza and Stella were the beginning and end, the alpha and omega, the bookends that held all the family stories from start to finish as well as the various shades and hues of personality and temperament.
Roberto is a man, and they always said it and I never believed it, but it’s true – a man is forgiven. The girl is always at fault. Forever married. People say, ‘Roberto did the right thing.’ But that’s not what they say about me. I’ll never be able to make this right. Never. But Roberto already has. He married me, so his debt is cleared.
There is no worse feeling than being unable to assuage the suffering of the innocent.
That we looked out for one another- that we watched out for each other’s kids and shared the harvest of our gardens and took care of our old people, and when we did the little things, like bake a cake, we’d bake two, one for our home and one for the neighbor.
As a matter of habit, I stop and pick up seashells that interest me, and I always put the ones I really like in a lovely Baccarat bowl in my living room. It’s my way of remembering that I once was young and carefree.
The weight of what had transpired on this day finally settled on Ciro. This wasn’t really their home, and the nuns weren’t truly family. The security they had provided was only on loan.
Did you ever find yourself in a place in life where you had committed to something, and you couldn’t make it work?
I learned that I wasn’t happy. It’s a terrifying thing to admit. It puts everyone around you in a state of paralysis because they think that they are somehow responsible for your sadness and can fix it. Of course they cannot. I know happiness exists somewhere and if I knew where, I would go to it and claim it. I realize I have spent my life reacting to things and not initiating them.
And just as in life, if a man imagines himself on his deathbed and then works back through the years of his life, he will make better decisions along the way, knowing the end. Or at the very least, he”ll spend his time more wisely.
The world was noisy. As Ciro looked around, he was the only person who seemed to be listening.
How can you quantify the moment when a person laughs, or when they cry, when they feel? You can’t. It’s the human experience.
Concetta is being duped. But you should never look down on someone for trusting the wrong person. It could happen to any of us.
He’s a good-looking sap, and he knows it. He’s just exactly smart enough to know that he can only be important in a place where he has no competition.
You kick a dog long enough, and eventually it will bite.
Each poor immigrant girl had a plan in place to survive. Some had brothers or fathers for protection, others, young husbands; but for all of them, the first line of defense was their scissors.
I loved him more than he loved me, and that is a bad place for a woman to be.
There is no greater purpose for art than to move you, to elevate your mood, to make you think, to remind you of places you have been or places you want to build. It does everything – nourishes the soul and lifts the spirits of the people.