Member-only story
Women’s History Month
Mom’s Defiance Shaped My Life
Her life showed me the way
My mother came to America from Italy when she was 2 years old.
Her family struggled as did all the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island at the beginning of the twentieth century. The land of opportunity initially brought them language barriers, poverty, poor housing conditions, and challenges finding employment.
Education was a luxury that most could not afford. My mother was in the sixth grade when she left school to help with family finances by cleaning houses.
Like many, her family, persevered to prove themselves in America.
She proudly would later tell me of her mother (who had died two years before I was born) working to learn English to pass her citizenship test, and of the glow on Grandma’s face when she was a citizen of her new country.
Then the Great Depression took hold and the struggles continued, but family solidarity, love, and perseverance got them through it.
I think my mother’s defiant nature developed during this time of survival to serve her throughout the course of her life.
