As I Look Out My Window

Grandma's Chicks

 
          I am five years old and as I look out my bedroom window, I see a dark dirty alley separating our dull gray rented  west side flat from a brick wall housing the corner drug store.No one ever comes in the alley.  It is blocked off at both ends.  I know, even at that young age that the world holds more beauty than that leaf-cluttered, prison-like passageway, for we visit grandma and grandpa in the country on weekends. There, at the top of the hill in Silver Creek, I look out my upstairs window at lovely gardens and flower beds, winding roads and grandpa's huge fig tree, a prized possession, nurtured from a small cutting.   It is the Sicilian memory of a boat trip taken at the turn of the century.. The colors of my life begin to grow as I scan the deep lustrous green and purple figs, orange zinnias lining the sidewalk and hundreds of fluffy chicks, a breathtaking golden yellow fluttering around on the barn floor.

Brother Sam & I in Silver Creek on our first communion

        There, in Silver Creek, are great memories of aunts, telling me how to live, uncles, bragging about their latest business ventures, and cousins sharing sliding rides down grandma's highly waxed stairway. In a prized photo from my mom's archives, we see proud aunt Clara - the spirited one with cousin Jean, Aunt Mary, always the proper lady in back of Vincenza, beloved uncle Tom, the baby of the family and fashionable aunt Chris with tiny toddler Antoinette.  Time for Sunday's usual fresh chicken soup.(yep, Vincenza killed the chicken that morning!)

Iacono sisters  Clara, Jessie, Mary and Chris with brother Tom

     I am fifteen and again as I look out my window on the upper story of a home we now own in a little better neighborhood, I catch the alcoholic father across the street, chasing his teen-age daughter as he yells cruel curses at this poor child.  the neighbors on one side are having their week-end drinking party and the gray house right across from my bedroom window is the home of a typical Italian family whose son I avoid at all costs. My refuge is the local dance studio and the lovely nuns and friends at Nardin Academy, most of whom came from wealthy homes.  The colors of my life have now grown to include dreams of a glamorous life, inspired no doubt from the many Hollywood movies I watched every chance I could get.

Brother Sam and I as a dance team on national television

     Finally, married and with children, my kitchen window reveals young children playing on swings I bought for them.  They swirl on the merry-go-round placed at the back of the yard (it would ruin the grass!) and from time to time I reveled in the many picnics that included both sides of the family.  What fun, The laughter, story-telling, presenting of new babies filled my life with unspeakable joy.Babies turned into teens and now graduation parties were the norm.  The weddings came and the parties ended.  Nothing however, can erase the memory of the glorious colors of my life with family viewed from my kitchen window.

Flag on the fourth in front of Our Lady of Victory Basilica

   Now I look out the family room window at the same  four acres of newly mowed lawn, huge overgrown trees and daily visits by families of deer, squirrels, rabbits and an occasional wild turkeys. My window reveals the Majesty of God and His blessings over our family throughout the years.  But another window is one I am privileged to see quite often from my apartment/office just ten minutes away.  it is the glorious, world-famous Basilica of Our lady of Victory, guarded by four trumpet bearing angels atop a turquoise dome. The colors of my life have included the red, white and blue since two of my sons and my husband have served in a number of wars.
     Years from now, as I look out the windows of heaven,I know I will see the family partying in the back yard, the children playing on the swings, and the baby chicks in grandma's barn. By then, t
he colors of my eternal life will be too unbelievable to even begin to describe

Interested readers will find the an authentic story of love and adventure in the forthcoming book, "Vincenza's Miracle".  It will be sold on Amazon.com shortly.