My Mother

I will add some personal notes about my mother, but in October 1995 my mother gave an oral history to my sister Louisie. I believe it important to include it here with slight further editing by me.   _________________________________________________________ My name is Carmella Malgieri Gallo. I was born in schenectady, New York, March 7, 1908. My parents were Antonio Malgieri and Angela Marie Renzi, both born in Dugenta, Italy, and came to this country in 1905 soon after they got married in Dugenta. My father lost his father (Michael Angelo Malgieri) when he was seven years old. In America, four Magieri girls were born: Anna (April 28, 1906, me in 1908, Assunta (August 15, 1910, and Elisabetta (Elizabeth) (October 17, 1912). In 1914 my family returned to Italy for a visit to our grandparents on both sides. My grandmother Carmina Gisondi was a widow for many years and old. My father loved her so much. She never wanted to come to America, even though she had other children in America; three boys and one girl, all at the time with their own families. My mother didn't like the idea very much of going back to Italy, but she loved my father and made a very happy home. One of my mother's brothers-in-law told my mother, you might never come back to America, but my mother said, "We will come back after the visit." My father always said that in America it is very nice but when you cannot work anymore the life in America is gard because there was no pension at that time. He had a good job at G.E. He said when you are old it is better to retire in Dugenta. We had all the arrangements to come back to America, but one of my parent's friends, a school teacher who was the best man when my parents got married, told my parents that they had made a mistake coming bact to Italy, because World War 1 was in motion already and because my father would be one of the first to be called because he was so young. Well, my father tried to bring the famiy back to America, but at that time you traveled by boat and no family was allowed to travel at that time because it was too dangerous. Anyway, my mother was a few months pregnant, so my father, alone, got the last boat to travel on the ocean back to America. The ship was the Duca D'Aosta from Naples and it arrived in America February 15, 1915, which at that time my father was 36 years old. The war lasted until 1918. My mother after having four girls gave birth to a boy in 1915. His name was Michaelangelo after my father's name. In 1918 there was a big influenza sickness all over the world. We all got sick but we girls got better after a while. My little brother lingered for a while longer, but he died in 1918. My mother was so distressed that she almost went crazy. When my father got the news, he tried to return to Italy, and he did as soon as he could. When we first returned to Italy from America, we rented a house to live in but my father had bought land near the town, so someday he would build a house when he retired. Then when he returned to America alone, he wrote to my mother from America and told her to build a house on the land for the family. My Grandmother Carmina Gisondi lived with us. She liked us very much and took care of us. She taught us to be nice girls with manners. My mother got people to work for her and she tried her best to build a house. We had a nice house to start. One big room up and one big room down, a water well, a chicken coop, and a pig pen. It was alright for us, since we were all girls and my grandmother in one room. That room was so big that three beds, 2 dressers, a china closet, a table and chairs, two big trunks that came from America, a place to wash ourselves in one corner and a big armoire to put our clothes in. The floor was marble, beautiful, windows on one side and a balcony facing the road. The well gave us all the water we want - in fact people came over to use the water from our well. When my father came back to Italy after my brother died and the war was over, he didn't like to sleep in one room. He decided he had to make more rooms - so he did. But at that time it wasn't like you get a mortgage. The money was getting short after he made all the building and bought more land around the house. The land is on front of the road and all around is a little river, in the middle was their land. So now our house is the first and last house near our village with a gate and fence all around it. So my father got a leave of absence from the GE. When he came back before time ran out, he told my mother that he will go back to America and work to send money back to Italy. My mother got used to being there and she had her parents near, but she also was not too happy to raise her girls in Italy. We were never like the other girls who worked on the farms. My grandmother lived many years with us before she died, and my parents never would like to leave her in Italy all alone. By that time, my mother had two other girls. My father came back again with the idea to stay and lived like he always liked to do. Make wine in his land and plant what they needed to live. They raised chickens and fruit trees. Before he came back to Italy my father stayed in Schenectady with his sister Maryanna, and she told my father those girls - that was us - they should come in America where they were born because they were born there and they shouldn't marry a farmer boy in Dugenta. My father wrote to my mother about that. She agreed, because we would make a better life in America. So Anna came when my father was still here in America and lived with him at his sister Maryanna. My father then returned to Italy to settle there. Anna was getting along very good with the Aunt Maryanna and her family, but she missed very much her own family, so my mother said if I would like to go to America to live with my sister Anna. I would be company to Anna. I was 15 and kind of afraid to go, but I made up my mind to go. I came on a boat name Dante Alighiri - an old boat that took 15 days to make the trip. I arrived in America August 18, 1923. I was a minor so one of the men, Pasquale Gallo - Age 37 from our village who was also coming to America with his son (Pasquale Gallo - age 14), took responsibility for me. Years later his son, Pasquale, married my sister Assunta and he was my future husbands first cousin. In 1925 my sister Anna married a man from our village of Dugenta that was in America for many years. His name was Pasquale Sterlina. He was a good man. He died in 1974. They had a nice life together with three children, one boy and two girls. After my sister Anna got married I and my sister Assunta went to live with my sister and brother-in-law. He was a father to my sister Assunta and me, and my sister Anna was a mother to us. Assunta came to America in 1926. There was talk in Dugenta that Anna had married a sick man because he had a bout of rheumatism when he was young, but not anymore. This made my parents very worried and his parents who also lived in Dugenta. So my father said he should come to America and investigate all about it. He did pay us a visit, not to stay here for long and it was nice. My mother was pregnant again. When he came here we loved him very much and wanted him to stay for a while, so he tried to work at the G.E., but they told him he was too old and he had not worked in the plant for so many years, so he took a job at Niagara Mohawk for a while. Well, after another two girls, my mother finally got a boy, named after Michaelangelo, but he was born on the 13th of June. That is Saint Anthony day so they believed that the baby who comes on a Saint day the baby should be named after him, but my mother wanted to name him after her beloved dead son. So they named his middle name Antonio My father after he got the news of the baby boy, he said to us that he wanted to go back to Italy. My sister Assunta came here when my father was here and we all lived with sister Anna and her family. One Sunday we were invited to a dinner party over to my Aunt.Maryanna, before my father left for Italy. Sister Anna and her husband with baby Carmella and my father went there before me and sister Assunta. A young man come to our door to see my father. He wanted to send a letter and some money to his father who lived not too far away from our house. His name was Angelo Gallo. I answered the door and told him that my father was at my Aunt's home. He knew where that was and he could go there if he wanted to see him. Later we went to my Aunt's. But this young man, after he made his business with my father, he parked his car near the house and waited for us to come. He liked it when he saw two nice girls, especially the older one - that's me. A few days later he asked for a date and come over to my sister Anna's house; but I told him I would like to write to my family if it was alright. Later, my father was very happy to accept his proposal for marriage to me. My father was ready to leave for Italy and he said that he wished he could stay to see us married. We got engaged on March 7, my birthday. I married Angelo Gallo on June 3, 1928 in St. Anthony's Catholic Church by Father James Matturro. Our witnesses were Raffaele Gallo, brother of my fixture husband and my sister Assunta. We had a nice wedding with all the trimmings and also my parents in Italy invited my father-in-law in Italy over to my parents for a nice dinner together. I had a nice life with my husband for 52 years. He left me a widow on April 3, 1980. He was going to be 80 on May 1. he died from emphysema after being sick for a while. We had four children, one girl, Luise and three boys Anthony, Simeo (after my husband's father) and Michael who came later, when I was 43 years old. The doctor told me I was having a change of life, but we got a nice baby that we loved very much. I have three sisters in Italy and one brother. His name is Michael Malgieri (died 2014) and we have visited him often. They all live in Dugenta, Italy. My brother lives in the same place where my father bought the land and made the first house. His house is next to the old house. It is beautiful and modern. In the old house my sister Filomena and her husband made it into an apartment and they live there. Also there is another apartment that was made for my brother's girl who lives there with her family. The old house that my father built was very big but my brother wanted a more modern house. He also built a gas station which they ran for many years, while my father was alive, but now it is rented out. It is built on the land next to the house. The house and gas station are built on a very commercial interstate that takes you all over Italy. It is very good right now, anyway for my family in Italy. All the Malgieri sisters signed all their rights to the land over to my brother. We gave over our right to inherit because my brother took care of my parents and they lived together all the time. We figured we never would go there to live anyway. One sister Guiseppina lives with my brother. She never got married. My other sister Michelina lives with her daughter Maria and her family. When we visit Italy we stay always over to Michael's house as to us, this is the house where we had our childhood. After my parents died, to us the house is the same as before. My brother treats us very nice and my sister-in-law is a very good person. She had a chance to come to America, but she wanted to marry my brother who she loves very much. She has two brothers who live in New York City. They visit their sister often. She bought out her brother's inheritance for land in Dugenta. Also her father left her some land. They are very strict to leave some inheritance to their children. We do to in America, but in Italy they save more to leave their children. It is more nice for a family together, like mine. One more of my sister (Elizabeth) was born in America, but had a hard time trying to come back to America. It was the time of the Fascist and they took a long time to give her a passport, but she was American born and she had a right to come her. But that was politics in Mussolini's time. Anyway the years went by, so she married a prosperous farmer and she didn't have to work on the farm. They had workers to help. But, her husband was called into the Army in the war in Africa and he was taken prisoner and sent to England for four years. She had one baby during this time and she had to manage the farm all by herself. When she was 20 years old she was sick with some sickness that left her heart weak. After her husband returned home, she had 2 girls, Giosephine and Maria. When the girls were very young of age, she had a stroke that took her life December 8 1967. The husband never married again and lives with his daughter Maria and family. The son lives in Torino, Italy but keeps a house in Dugenta given to him by his father and he has other land too with vineyards. He comes home to take care every once in a while and in summer too. When he retires, he will live there with his family. They have a son and daughter - Simonetta and Mark who are married and college educated. They have one grandchild Nicole. I am in good health as of 87 years old, but after I broke my leg. I went down in health then. That was 2 years ago, March 17, 1993. After that I went to the eye doctor because I couldn't see to good I thought I needed new glasses but the told me that I didn't need new glasses - it was cataracts on both eyes. He said that I could wait for little time, but they got worse not better. I told my daughter and she said to have it done. The doctor that I chose was a specialist for that type, Dr. Kennedy. I had the right eye first on July 14, 1994 and the left on October 13, 1994. The right one has something back of the implant so I had lmr treatment done at the hospital after many months. I had to have special drops for the left eye. I told the doctor I was not satisfied and he started the lazer treatment. I was kind of afraid, but he assured me there was nothing to it. I got new glasses, but I have to go to see him in four months. I think I need a new prescription. I can read good, but I can't wear them all the time, they bother me around the house. I take them off and can see better. February 4, 1995 I took a trip to spend a week in Florida with my daughter and her family near the ocean. The plane from Albany airport could not land in Raleigh, NC and we had to wait three hours before the captain had permission to fly to Orlando. When I got there all alone, my son-in-law was waiting near the luggage place. The airport people told me to wait near the plane. I waited and then went to the information and showed them my ticket. I found my son-in-law and my grandaughter Debbie's husband. They got me a wheelchair because I couldn't walk that far. It took two hours to get to the ocean where my daughter Louise and Debbie and her children were. I was so tired out I told my daughter my traveling days are over. She said, "Mother you still have to fly to Baton Rouge" which I did. I stayed with Sam's family for three weeks. My grandchildren came from Atlanta and Dallas to see me. I had a wonderful time to visit all the family. My daughter Louise and son-in-law came to Baton Rouge to visit a few days and return home with me. We came back March 5 from Louisiana. I enjoyed staying with Sam and Shirley. The weather was cool, but nothing like at home. Today, my son Anthony from Olean and his family are coming for Easter vacation with me for a few days. I am looking forward to seeing them. I baked all the goodies that we do at Easter every year with my children. I will visit at the cemetery and bring flowers to my dear husbands grave. My husband's family came from the same town, Dugenta, not too far from my mother's house. His father, Simeo Gallo and mother, Louise DiCerbo got married and lived with his parents, for a few years. He was the first son, and in Italy the first son has to help with the farm and other things. It was the custom at that time. After the other brothers got older Simeo wanted to build his own house. His father gave him some land near the road, and at that time it was very nice. He had four boys and three girls. My husband was a twin, so was his brother Ralph. Each twin died in infancy. One of the brothers came to America and the others followed too. My husband came in 1920. First he lived with a married sister. Then another brother came to America and also stayed with them until they got married. The last sister wanted to come too. She was not married. Their father was all by himself until he died. He never got married after his wife died at an early age of complications after her last twins were born. I remember him, but my husband and I didn't have any association with each other in Italy. Angelo was 7 years older than me, but he knew of me in Italy. But when he was 17, I was 10. No boys look at a little girl at that age. I met him, as I said before, in Schenectady. The house that my father-in-law built is still there. All of the family in America let the last sister live there. After he died, they made the house a little more modern. It still looks nice. By now, the children took over. I visited there once with my husband. I went more because my mother was still alive. I had to beg my husband to go to Italy. After the father died there was some misunderstanding with the brothers and sister. Anyway, there is only one sister alive and she is 97 years old. Her name is Jenny. She lived with her daughter Louise Piniero and husband Joseph. They have no children. I visited with her last year and I call her sometimes. Jenny has another daughter Catherine. She is a widow and she has two children (Jenny died this year, May 11, 1995). The funeral was in Schenectady at the cemetery where her husband and baby daughter are buried. My husband and I were the godparents and also Louise and Catherine ware my godchildren too. We were the baptizm godparents to sister Anna's son Frank Sterlina. My son Simeo's baptizm godparents are my sister Sue and my brother-in-law Ralph. My son Anthony's are Benjamin Gallo and wife Rose. My daughter Louise's are Sue and Patsy Gallo. My son Michael's are Sue and Simeo Gallo both deceased. When I die, I will be buried next to my husband who died April 3, 1980. When my time comes, please my children, I don't want any long suffering by all the new machines that the hospital has to live longer. I will die in peace. I have lived a good life. I loved my husband and my darling children and all my grandchildren and great ones too. I love them all. Be good, love one another all the time. Try very hard because the world is so changed, but the family has got to be respected all the time. Love, Your Loving Mother Carmella