(Click here to read “Retracing Noni’s Footsteps – Part 1”)
Sometimes one’s family history comes into unexpected convergence with world shaping events. My grandmother Loredana Tedesco (nee’ Stenech) was a young girl living in Rome when World War II broke out. She remained in the city throughout the war. It was a difficult period for the Italian people and for my grandmother. Many lives were lost. Families were disrupted and destroyed. Prior to Rome being declared an “Open City,” buildings were bombed, including my Noni’s house. Although wartime Rome was a dangerous, traumatic place to spend her teenage years, Noni survived, she grew, and she never forgot. But it was the end of the war that brought the most significant change in her life.
Noni remembers the Americans marching into Rome. “The war was finally over when the Americans arrived,” she recalled. She didn’t know it then, but the arrival of United States Troops in Rome would change the course of her life and our family history forever.
Marching with the 5th Division of the United States Army in the summer of 1944 was a young Italian-American Army Private and Translator named Edward Tedesco. (Read more about Edward here.) Edward, known to me as “Grampy,” immigrated to the United States with his parents and sister from San Pietro a Maida, Calabria, Italy as a young boy. He returned to Italy under the flag of his new country. He was a handsome self-educated artist who no doubt was anxious to get back to his home in Massachusetts. But fate had brought him to that storied city of Rome for a different purpose.
My grandparents do not recall the exact date they met in 1945, but from the moment they saw each other, their lives were never the same. Noni and Grampy both remember this moment: Noni and her friend were walking along the Tiber River in Rome’s Prati section when they spotted 2 American soldiers. One of the soldiers was Grampy. He approached Noni and said something to her in Italian. Exactly what he said has long been forgotten. But he made a big impression. Grampy is quite the charmer!
It was love at first sight for Grampy. But Noni needed a little time to process her emotions. She returned home after that fateful meeting and reluctantly told her mother that she had met a dashing young American solder. My Tuscan born great-grandmother, Tecla Pellegrini, was less than thrilled (“outraged” is a better word) that this upstart soldier was from rural Calabria, was the grandson of a farmer and was an “ignorant AMERICAN” to boot. The relationship meant trouble as far as she was concerned. She knew that if Noni and Grampy fell in love and were married, he would whisk her only daughter away forever to America.
In spite of all forebodings, the courtship continued. Whenever my grandfather was off duty, he and Noni spent time together, getting to know each other. They poked around the city like tourists, with Grampy pointing out and sometimes sketching significant works of art and architecture that he had read about or studied. Often Noni was the focal point of his sketches. But so as not to be perceived the impoverished artist, Grampy would splurge on his beloved. He recalls one time saving his up his Army wages for a month so he could take Noni to a fancy restaurant. He knew from the beginning that Noni was the only girl for him.
Noni’s mother Tecla could see things were getting serious between the two lovebirds. She therefore insisted on taking her lovelorn daughter on a little trip to clear her head. The two departed for Piombino on the Tuscan coast where great-grandmother Tecla’s parents Rosa Rosini and Angelo Pellegrini lived. They assumed Grampy would never find Noni in Piombino. (Boy, were they were wrong!) Later that day, Grampy stopped by Noni’s house in Rome only to find her gone. He describes ringing all the doorbells in the building to ask the neighbors where she was. Nobody knew. Finally, he was able to persuade the portiera, a petite older lady who minded the door, to tell him where Noni and her mother had gone. “Piombino. Loro si sono andate a Piombino.” They went to Piombino.
At the time, Grampy recalls having no idea where Piombino was. Equipped with a map, a few days leave, and a United States Army Jeep, Grampy set out to find Piombino and the love of his life. It would take nearly a day of driving on damaged post WWII roads to arrive in Piombino. He found out from a café owner where the Pellegrini family lived and knocked on the intimidating door. My great-great grandmother, Rosa Rosini answered the door and told him “Loredana non e’ qui!” Not home? Ridiculous! My great-great grandfather Angelo Pellegrini would soon emerge from another room. “Come no? Lei e’ qui.” Of course, Noni was there.
After this drama, there wasn’t much my great-grandmother Tecla could do to prevent the two from marrying. Noni was in love with Grampy, and he was hopelessly smitten with her. The next day, the three of them headed back to Rome in the Army Jeep.
Noni and Grampy were married about a month later a few steps from Noni’s home at the Church of the Sacro Cuore del Suffraggio — The Church of the Sacred Heart of Suffering in Purgatory. “Yeah, it was appropriate that we were married there,” Noni often dryly comments. 68 wonderful years have passed since their marriage in 1945. To this day they are inseparable and still very much in love.
(Click here to read “Retracing Noni’s Footsteps – Part 3”)
-Mary M. Tedesco, ORIGINS ITALY.
PS: Noni’s story continues with her immigration to the United States and the start of her new life with Grampy. Check back soon!
