Anna’s story {Tuesdays with Tina, part 7}

Tuesdays With Tina

• I Nonni {Tuesdays with Tina, part 1}
• Vincenzo Migliaro, famous painter {Tuesdays with Tina, part 2}
• {Tuesdays with Tina, part 3}
• Vico Canale {Tuesdays with Tina, part 4}
• It’s a girl! {Tuesdays with Tina, part 5}
• Working with the Americans {Tuesdays with Tina, part 6}
• Anna’s story {Tuesdays with Tina, part 7}
• School and Work {Tuesdays with Tina, part 8}
• Life in the Tailor Shop {Tuesdays with Tina, part 9}
• Life before television {Tuesdays with Tina, part 10}
• Sickness and health {Tuesdays with Tina}
• Celebrating Holidays {Tuesdays with Tina, part 12}
• Life in Naples in the Late 50s, Early 60s {Tuesdays with Tina, part 13}
• Celebrating New Year’s in Naples {Tuesdays with Tina, part 14}
• Meeting my dad {Tuesdays with Tina, part 15 }
• Meeting dad continued {Tuesdays with Tina, part 16}
• Going on Dates {Tuesdays with Tina, part 17}
• Going to the Chapel…{Tuesdays with Tina, part 18}
• The Honeymoon! {Tuesdays with Tina, part 19}
• Honeymoon in Germany, continued {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 20}
• First Comes Love; Then Comes Marriage; Then Comes… {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 21}
• Then comes baby! {Tuesdays with Tina, Part 22}

If you are new to this series, catch up first and then come back and read.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Me: After you, Anna was born.

Tina: Anna was born. I was born in 1943 and she was born in 1946. She must have been born in January because I remember that she died August 15, Ferragosto (and Italian holiday), and my father’s birthday. Ida, one of the commara’s (that close family friend) daughter’s was getting married (they had two daughters and one son – one got married and the other two remained single til their deaths). She was 8 months when she died and since it was during the summer, mamma had a pediatrician that she really trusted – his name was Dr. Bonavita – but since it was holiday time he wasn’t around. Mamma was convinced that the reason Anna died was because Dr. Bonavita wasn’t there. She really trusted him.

Me: Why did she die?

Tina: It’s not really known. She began having convulsions. They used to talk about it possibly being meningitis but Rosalba in the end didn’t think that was it. I remember when they put her in the room before the funeral her lips were purple. Before I went to the wedding – because someone took me to Ida’s wedding, also to get me out of there – I remember that I kissed her and she was cold. I was three years old.

Me: Tell the story about the watch.

Tina: Ah yes! Since I was little too, I would play with Anna and one time I wanted to make the outline of a watch on the baby’s wrist – with a bite! (If you bite flesh, all the teeth leave a round imprint.) Poor thing! She started crying! Mamma asked me, “What did you do?!” I responded, “I was just trying to make her a watch!” It’s crazy the things you remember!

Me: You were only three years old! How can you possibly remember so many things?

Tina: I remember when Anna died in the house. I remember kissing her cold lips, making the watch mark on her wrist and then I don’t remember anything else. But then I remember that I used to go with Mamma every day – if not every day then every other day, or at the very least once a week- we would go to the cemetery to visit Anna’s grave. I would play with the flowers I would find. Spent flowers. Because I was just a little girl and I would play. I remember that smell of spent flowers. Mamma would sit on a bench and cry. Since in Naples after one year, especially with children, the bodies are exhumed, the bones are cleaned and placed in a crypt, Mamma said, “Next year, when I come back, I want to have a baby in my arms.” She was determined. If you calculate it: Anna died the 15th of August – September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June. Tonino was born the 19th of June.

Me: So after one month…

Tina: After one month she was pregnant! I bet she was never so willing to have sex as she was that month! (laughter…) So when she went to the cemetery for the disinterment, she had another baby in her arms! A two-month old baby!