My Mom

     A handsome  and charming young man spotted the 18 year old beauty walking home from work with his  two sisters.  It was love at first sight and about one year later, at age nineteen, Jessie became Mrs. Samuel Ciccia.  Their first apartment on Normal Avenue was kept spotless  and within two years, held both a little boy and girl, their pride and joy.  I knew when I was only three that I had the prettiest mother on the block (or was it the world)?  Very early in my life I also  realized   that although she was a workaholic; her many attributes included being extremely friendly, bright, enthusiastic, loquacious and totally organized and to her family's delight, a fabulous cook.

      With proper education, Jessie could have easily been appointed the principal of a high school or college, but in those days, the Italian male philosophy presumed that women were only going to get married and have babies, so why bother?

      When the family struggled financially, mom worked long hours  in a laundry, yet saved a quarter a week to send me to dancing school at age five.  Later she became a dynamic sales person for Avon (no one could say “no” to my mom) and later at a dress shop.  While working with my dad in our newly opened restaurant on Grant Street, she helped me with braces and tuition to Nardin Academy and later worked as secretary in my first studio. 

     Jessie was a  devoted member of Nativity’s church choir for many years, until we moved to Potomac Ave and our family opened the restaurant on Grant street .  Friends, family and neighbors were always welcome at our home for home made spaghetti, ravioli , or mom’s great roast beef dinners.  She arranged for huge graduation parties,  and  later wedding showers.

      I still cherish the movies she filmed at my Nardin Academy graduation and  our visit to Great Lake’s Navel Academy  where  brother Sam began life as a sailor. At various times, she studied piano, golf, Italian, advanced crafting for her role as a teacher at the Home Bureau  and was a devoted wife mother and grandmother as well.  Jessie never missed mass even becoming a Eucharistic minister at St Gregory’s after moving to the Amherst home dad built for her.  She and dad traveled a great deal since they had to attend conventions for the Hardware store and she made lifelong friends wherever she went. Once when I was about six, mom worked part- time in an orphanage.  She fell in love with a sweet baby named “Corky”. and begged to adopt her but the mother refused to pay the $16 to the state.  Little Corky grew up without the joy of having one of the greatest mothers in the world.  I thank God for this privilege each and every day. 

Clara, Jessie, Mary, Tom & Christina