Telling stories is in my nature

"In order to know who you are, you have to know where you're from". Rebbe Kasovsky, Greater Latvia

For me it is fairly easy to know my own personality because I was lucky enough to know so many relatives as I grew up, and even today I talked to my cousins Craig and Kathy Rafferty. On my Mother's side of the family were Orthodox Jewish Great Grandparents who came to St. Paul in the 1880's probably due to the hostile conditions in Eastern Europe. Their son, Rubin, ran off with my Grandma Lillian, a Protestant  and when they came back from California they had the start of their family, my Aunt Ruth. Rubin's parents were probably not too pleased with his disregard for Jewish protocol, but things worked out very well, as they had a total of 6 daughters who loved them very much. My Mother, Lorraine, is the 4th in line and now 92.

My other grandparents came from Southern Italy to settle in St. Paul about 1915. They lived in a communal  environment called Swede Hollow where my Dad and the rest of the 8 children were born in the home. Obviously my Grandpa was a blue collar worker just like Rick Santorum's but he didn't have "big hands", he just knew how to use them in a productive way. It is from the Italian culture that my life was mostly influenced. Some of it good and some of it less good. They wanted to become American  in every way they could so they worked hard and followed the "rules".  They loved to build, garden, cook, bake, clean, make wine, raise animals and they made things look nice. To them beauty was synonymous with virtue and art. You should do things properly or you'd be considered lazy.

My Grandma, Maria Nazarina Panella D'Aloia

It is my Italian Grandmother that saw to the religious affairs of the family and so it is to her that I owe my Catholic faith. "Sono Catolica Americano". This was passed down to my Dad and my "convert" Mom from Grandma, and for this I am very grateful and proud. I had a very happy and interesting childhood and our Catholic values had a lot to do with our lives then and they still do now.

This act of writing a simple story, arranging memory and thinking about it is for me therapeutic and in my view holy. Today I feel very good and positive thinking goes a long way toward healing.

Your friend, Gary