A Beautiful Letter

[mfjp]

That's what it was...

A beautiful letter.... and I can't find it....

Does anyone remember that letter that someone posted in early 2005? It was such a wonderful post... and I must have read it a dozen of times...

Basically...

A future father-in-law handed a sealed envelope to his future daughter-in-law. Before she boarded the boat, he told her to deliver the letter to her future husband.... (his son) in the USA...

When he opened it... there was the most loving advice a father could give to his son...

Words written to him advised him to love his future wife and respect her. He also reminded him that the town she left was in mourning because she was leaving... and that she was a good woman...

If anyone can recall this post.. please let me know what words to search for... I've tried a number of things... but nothing shows up...

If I do find it I will post the link ... if anyone does try to look for it... remember to have it search all posts... and not the last 200...



Anyone remember this post?? or the title...


Maria

[wldspirit]

Not that it is much help.....but I do remember the post.....
will help to look for it later.........
to hot to cook and the central air is running overtime trying to keep up with this heat.......headed to the kitchen to eat a nice cold salad!!!
Lisa

[trevisan2]

It was one of my posts.
My grandmother Regina Maria Vendrame carried the letter in 1916 from Cimetta to California.
I'll look for the letter, or you can find it under my posts.
Regards,
Trevisan2

[trevisan2]

Feb 8, 2005 date of orginal post:

Thank you, Thank you for finding my grandmother, with a misspelled last name. I have looked for it in vain. I want to share a letter written by her father-in law that was hand carried from Italy to California. My grandmother Maria Vendrame was married the day after she arrived in Calif.
Visna 24 July 1916

Dear Son,

I an sending this letter with your fiancee, and I have to tell you that we are all enjoying perfect health except your mother who has many nerve pains as you know, but later she will tell you everything. Today your fiancee is leaving from here to reach you in California and I an very happy that you will be united holy marriage, because this is the reason of her departure. I pray and exhourt you to love her with all your heart, because she has always loved you from here and she never made anyone gossip about her business: and I tell you more, that in her family when she was giving the last farewell everybody was crying as she was a dead person going to her grave.

Forgive me dear son if I lenghten the letter with this recommendation, and I am sure that you know her better than me: I will not tell you more aobut this and about other things and I will let your fiancee talk about all the other events. I exhourt your to greet your employers and tell them I hope every good thing for them.

In the end of this letter I feel to give you my paternal blessings, and I bless you dear son in the name of the Lord and I bless you in the name of the Holy Virgin Mary and in the name of all the holy saints in heaven, and this will be.

Your father
Biasi Pasquale

I'm the grand son
Trevisan2

[mfjp]

Just for the record...

Beautiful Letter Post located!!

Her manifest located

trevisan2... that was yours??

I guess you must have been surprised to see my post about your grandmother's letter!!

I was telling my friend about one of my favorite posts at this forum.... and told her about this particular one... and then I couldn't find it... couldn't even search for it properly...

Glad you replied... it certainly is worth posting once more...

With thanks,
Maria

[nuccia]

Thanks for sharing it trevisan2...

Maria, you were right...it is beautiful.

Made me cry! Lou thinks I'm nuts but you never see this kind of stuff in this day and age...no one likes their in laws much or has anything nice to say. Either this man truly liked his future daughter in law or she was a very special woman...or maybe a combination of the two.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Nuccia

[mfjp]

Hi Nuccia,

This is the post I was telling you about the other day.... during our 2+ hour telephone conversation...

I didn't think I'd get a result so fast... it pays to post eh??

Pasquale Biasi sure had wisdom!!

Maria

[wldspirit]

Trevisan.....did the family ever see their daughter again?

Our ancestors were very brave.......to up and leave their home, their family, for the unknown..........I don't think I could be that brave......
Lisa

[trevisan2]

My grandmother never returned to Italy.

My grandmother was brave, or just love struck. Besides taking the boat all the way by herself ( three weeks) to New York, It took another week to ride the train to California.

Interesting enough, she was married the day after she arrived in California, and my dad was born 9 months later.


Another interesting note, her inheartance was about 52,000 lire in 1922. while it does not sound like much . . . but a whole house could be purchased with 3,500 lire at the time.

A brother in Law had her sign a power of attorney, he then received the money and never sent any on to her in the US.

She wanted to go back and strangle the guy.

A aunt gave me 30 or so letters all written from 1914 to 1922. I had them all translated. Many were written on post cards, from mothers, fathers, aunts or uncles and some brothers or sisters. The letters are all that I have to gain a insight on their lives.

I also received about 15 pictures, that I had enlarged and have been able to indentify all but one of them, by showing them to different sided of the family.
One picture of a older lady say in her 60's was shown to a 93 year old cousin, who then kissed the picture and proclaimed "Oh mia nonna" My great grand mother Rosa Momi.

Regards,
Trevisan2

[wldspirit]

You have in those letters and pictures a true treasure.........how wonderful to be able to read what was written by family so long ago..........
but it makes me sad that they never got to see their daughter again......
wldspirit

[bonval]

Nuccia -- wanted to tell you a little about MY mother in law Concetta! She was a simple peasant woman from Itri - she would act as a midwife for the town for many years (not sure she was paid but the town doctor trusted her!). I never met her until after I was married (we went to Italy for our honeymoom!). This gentle loving woman presented me with a pair of her prized vintage earrings in front of all the women of the family -- she told me that day,"Cara mia, you are married now to my tesoro, my baby but today you have also become my daughter! So I give these to you as my daughter instead of to nieces or granddaughters because you as daughter come before them now. When you and my son disagree, I will side with you right or wrong so that you know I will never come between you and my son! I will pray every day of my life that the Good Lord besses you as He does my son!" Concetta passed away at 94 -- and after 30 years of marriage to her wonderful son, I can still brag that NO ONE has ever been blessed with such a precious family as my in laws, everyone of them but especially Concetta!

[nuccia]

bonval,

Another very beautiful story. We hear so much about mother in laws these days (mostly in a negative sense) and its so nice to hear there are those out there that are as loving and accepting as Concetta was.

Thanks for sharing that. It really is wonderful.

[bonval]

That is so true Nuccia -- the reason I shared -- we seem so much to focus on negative things and forget there is still so much beauty in the world. I personally am not Italian -- but since I was a very young girl, my father taught me to appreciate opera and art and literature. As a young girl I read a series of books about an Italian monk who was always fighting with the communist mayor of their little village - naturally the monk usually won -- there was a series of these books very similar to a TV series set in Italy that often plays on RAI. I cannot remember the book titles and have never found them again (I read them in the 1950's) but I would dream of living in Italy. Something about this series and then later art and music set about a deep seeded dream. It was buried until I met my husband. After all these years I have decided that most of us search for family roots because we want to know what it is or was that made our families so connected -- so strong and loving -- we see the beauty in their roots, their love, their strengths -- something we want to share with our future generations especially when so much has become so ugly. For AMericans especially we have become such a mobile people and don't have the deep roots and connections to land, family, heritage like so many had in Italy. That was one of the reasons I began our family tree research -- to share this family with our sons!