meet Mamma Nonna, my great-grandmother

This has been a wonderful and magical couple of days for me. As a few of my writer friends know (I believe I've posted on this blog about it, too), and all of my family knows, all of my family photographs that my mother had were lost many years ago. I have been trying for years to find photographs, and slowly, they have been trickling in.
First, my younger sister was able to salvage childhood photographs my dad had tucked away and forgotten. Now, apparently I've hit the mother lode--my Boston cousin Johnny has found a treasure trove in the basement of his childhood home, including pictures of my great-grandmother (who is one of the most important characters in The Strega's Story).

I believe Mamma Nonna was in her seventies when this picture was taken. The major contact I had with her was when she was well into her nineties, so she was much thinner and her hair was whiter when I knew her. It's hard to tell here, but she's wearing a hairnet (de rigeur for her, apparently, though she didn't wear them when I knew her later in her life). Note the very straight posture. This was taken in the parlor of the house I write about in the book. I remember very well the rocking chair she's sitting in, and the parlor--I saw her there in the early 1970s, a year or two before she died at 98. There is another one of her which shows her incredible gaze and I will post that soon.

There are lots of other photographs I will also be putting on the site in the next few days. My cousin is sending me a box of photographs to look at and scan, hoping I will be able to identify a few of the people. We are hoping that there will be a photograph of my grandmother Mary in there. She was very well loved by that side of the family, so there's a good chance of this. For now, my heart is very full, looking at these pictures and realizing that I really do have a past and a history, and that I belong to a family. There is not a price anyone can put on such a thing.