A poor blue collar Italian immigrant family, who like many came off the boat (Loreto, Maria & oldest daughter Annunziata aka Nancy seated to your right, came from the "old country,") to make a better life for themselves.
Clara (in wedding dress), was the last of the Cedrone siblings to pass away. Clara died this afternoon three months shy of her 96th birthday.
Her passing also brings to an end many family traditions.
That generation stood for family. Family values. Family was everything. The good. The bad. The happy. The sad. All of it evolved around family and being Italian...FOOD!
On any given Sunday Clara pictured below was in the kitchen like her mother & sisters before her filled with family & food.
Notice the small photo pulled from a 1960s 8mm movie. I swear it's the same pot she was using some 40 years later.
The links to the videos below will more than wet your appetite.
Beyond tables filled with food, the home was filled with laughter.
Laughing!
Everyone talking if not YELLING all at the same time. Often times they were the same old stories you heard 100 times before but enjoyed hearing once again. Clara loved to cook & we loved eating what she made. Pasta to cookies, string beans to salad, chicken to rabe'. You couldn't have enough of it & if you were lucky (as I was) you didn't leave without leftovers.
Clara's Sunday Leftovers 1080p (p for Pasta)
But you also left with memories. Memories of a family that started from nothing. That endured hard ships. A family that stood tall. Proud of who they were & what they became.
The first photo at the top of this post does not exist. There are no photos of the family together. The image was created from several photos to create a family group shot. Today they are once again reunited.
My mother died in 1988 when I was 32.
Today, November 24th 2013 I am 57. Clara having two daughters often referred to me as the son she never had.You don't often get a chance at a second mother. She was much like one to me & a grandmother to our kids who never really had an (Italian) grandma.
The memorial video linked below has about 30 seconds of dark screen. There is a dialogue box detailing how she & Dan met.
However, some devices/browsers don't see the dialogue. If you don't, just cue past that to about 7:00.
She & Dan also became our youngest child's Godparents seen here the day of his baptism:
Dan Marini
Clara often said she was too old. She said she'd never see him graduate high school. But she did.
It was this time of year, Thanksgiving 2009 where she & Dan (who passed away 3 years prior) were featured in the local paper after I discovered Dan's local Quincy Christmas Parade footage:
http://marinisofquincy.blogspot.com/2009/11/parade-memories.html
I had 32 years with my mother with almost as many with Aunt Clara who was as close to a second mother as you could be lucky to have. She, my mother & the rest are now reunited.
Something tells me there's plenty of sauce on the stove, more meatballs than you can count, with endless bowls of spaghetti. That would truly be heaven.
Clara The Movie 1080p
Clara Marini's Fresh Gnocchi's!
Clara's Sunday Leftovers 1080p (p for Pasta)
Italian Sunday Dinner 1080p (Pasta Vision)
Italian Sunday Dinner HD
Italiano!
Food, Wine, Song. Italian!
Italian Christmas
Italians!
Abudanza Marini Style, 8mm Home Movie
Aunt Clara's
Clara Marini Making Pasta at 93
Clara Marini 8mm Pasta
Clara Marini Cooking Pasta 8/23/09
Clara Marini's Macaroni
Claras stories...live on:
Clara Meets Dan 1080p (Paisan Vision)
Clara's Punch 1080p (Punch Vision)
Aunt Millies 1080p (Pasta Vision)
Dan Burns His Backside (HD)
Clara's Horse Story
I found just weeks after Clara died an early/mid 1980's audio cassette. No one knew they existed. They were never heard by anyone. We assume Clara may have listened to them, but they could've been recorded then stored away & forgotten.
I wish I'd found them before she passed away.
Enjoy:
Thanksgiving. Listen to all the food coming out of the kitchen & that's just the "little something," to hold you over:
https://app.box.com/s/tuvny9ka2l0etcxxq2gx
Dan singing the songs he sang to Clara when they were courting:
https://app.box.com/s/ma83g22uub0f9tys8769
