What is that old saying “We only meet at weddings and funerals? ”
So true and yet sad, or is it? Weddings are happy occasions, celebrating the new life together of the happy couple and funerals naturally are sad, the end of the mortal life of a loved one. The priest at the wake of Anthony Biondolillo reminded us that though his family and friends mourn his passing, he will always be remembered. Now here is where we separate these two necessary functions. Weddings today are too expensive to invite everyone you would like to. Funerals, however, wakes cost nothing to go and pay your respects, but attending a wake, you’ll open up a wealth of valuable memories.
I’m writing this series of columns as a gift to my grandchildren, so they will know when they’re old enough to read and understand a little history of their lineage and how their great grandparents came to America.
At Tony Biondo’s (Anthony Biondolillo) wake, who would have been 87 when he died, May 28, his second cousin Su Ann DeMarco, a Volpe asked me how I was related to Tony. Actually, we weren’t, Tony’s father Vincenzo and mother Victorina Volpe were my Godparents who baptized me, but our families were closer than any blood relatives could be.
And here starts the tale of the three couples that came together to America never to return to Sicily. Victorina Biondolillo and Su Ann’s grandfather Octavio Volpe were brother and sister. They like the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria also came to America, but this trio came on their Honeymoon, if you could call separate men and women steerage class a honeymoon? The ocean voyage was so rough, turbulent and nauseating that Grazia (Costantino), my mother, swore she would never cross the Atlantic again and she never did. Never to see her mother (Carmela), father (Giuseppe) and her two sisters Concettina and Marietta ever again. Her brothers Diego, Gerlando and Salvatore also emigrated here, never to return. They all settled in Little Italy and eventually followed their married children to Brooklyn. However, my father Calogero first emigrated here, when his older brother Alfonso, who preceded him here, gave the call “Calu Veni Ca.” So my father came to America, then went back to serve in the Italian Navy, which gave him and his bride Grazia free passage to come to America. So that’s how my father and mother came to America.
Now although Su Ann is not really my contemporary, her father and mother were contemporaries with my three older sisters Assunta (Sue), named after my father’s mother, Carmela (Millie) named after my mother’s mother and Giovanina (Jennie) named after my father’s sister. However Su Ann’s husband Jerry DeMarco, a former Principal, who eventually worked for the CSA (Council of Supervisors and Administrators) always run into me various District 21 affairs. Recognizing the name Carmine Santa Maria, he tracked me down, introduced himself as Su Ann’s husband, whom naturally I’ve known throughout her childhood, having known her mother and father and grandparents.
So that’s how a Volpe, and Santa Maria’s got together at a Biondolillo funeral wake and how information about our histories was exchanged. All in all, we spent two hours reminiscing and unfortunately I didn’t get to speak to most of Tony Biondo’s children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and kin. Saying a prayer for Tony at the closing of the Chapel, I was able to convey my condolences to his wife Ann, who appreciated my sisters Susie, Millie and me taking the long schlep to Flushing? Thank God for my Verizon GPS who talked us through every mile and exits going there and getting us home. To be continued next week!
Screech at you next week!
