Skip to main content

Good Faith






"My name is engraved in the Sistine Chapel" I remember her telling me once proudly.  The Sistine Chapel as in THE Sistine Chapel... of Michelangelo fame... in Rome.  Actually, I believe she meant that her name is engraved under the dome above the main altar in the Basilica of St. Peter's, which the Sistine Chapel is a part of.  The language of the church is Latin, and the word Fides means Faith in Latin.  Fides is also a deity, actually; she is the goddess of trust and good faith.

Nonna would explain the pronunciation of her name ... "Fee-Diss - NOT Fee-tuss... as in an unborn baby" when she was introduced to new people.  Apparently hearing, understanding, and properly articulating her name, even amongst other Italians, was difficult. 

I only saw her a few times a year at most.  They lived a few moons up the coast and it was almost an all-day affair to reach them.  We traveled by car, got through the border, caught the ferry, and then back in the car to (literally) race off to catch the next ferry!  I always loved those ferry rides.  The natural beauty through Horseshoe Bay and Howe Sound was always mesmerizing to me.  I always felt, what I perceived as, Native American spirituality as we floated along.  Once we were off that second ferry it was only a few more miles until we arrived!  When we finally reached them they would be standing on their deck waving at us and she would run down to greet us with hugs and kisses. 

Those feelings and thoughts I had about her stand out in my mind all the time as she was very influential in what she stood for and what she communicated in that universal language that women speak.  It's interesting how the years all blend together; before you know it you become a woman too, and begin to see and experience what she may have seen & experienced when she was younger.  My vision, understanding and admiration for her evolved over the years. 

She was our matriarch and as such, her very strong character is what resonates with me the most.  Italians are known for being very opinionated and very loud - and that side of my family is, without a doubt, both of those things!  I think now about things she had done or said and I can relate to it, in a current times sort of way.  First and foremost she always made sure her husband, family, and home were taken care of.  Actually, that was her J-O-B.  She lived in times when it wasn't even considered a luxury to stay at home, that's just how it was. 

Their house was always neat, clean, and tidy... no clutter...definitely no dust... no junk mail or bills or "things" everywhere - maybe junk mail didn't even exist then?  She was always busy with something and took pride in herself and her surroundings.  That was just what she did and who she was.  In those everyday events, she always seemed to be enjoying life!

So... maybe my Nonna was named after Fides the deity?!  It certainly makes sense now that I'm thinking about it...  after all, deities are Goddesses, right?  They interact positively with humans and have the ability to carry us, mere mortals, to new levels of consciousness - consciousness beyond the ordinary preoccupations of life - the endless chores... the monotony of working a 9-5?  Her incredible way of making everything seem like it was no big deal... is, in fact, one of the characteristics I admire most about her. 

So on this Mother's Day, I sing to my Dear Nonna,
(and if she were alive today I know she would sing right along with me!)
I sing to the mother of my fun, fantastic father...  
Happy Mother's Day!!  
You always carried the Faith & I will forever have you in my heart!
S.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Loving Memory...

I have an "inspiration" binder that I keep on a shelf in my office at home where I’ve collected pictures of things I've found in magazines.  There's a few priceless treasures of artwork that my kids made me tucked in there too.  I only add super special stuff - things that I know I'll love for the long term.   Anyway, we were talking about a project at the house when I suddenly thought of a photo I wanted to share with Russ and brought the binder out.  As I was flipping through these pages of images that I'd saved over a good decade of time,  I found this little quote Mom had sent to me.  I don't know when she sent it, but I had liked it so much.  There it was, this two sentence quote that SHE must have cut out of a magazine.  The words were highlighted in what was now a faded yellow marker and she’d written four little words above it on a hot pink sticky note in her beautiful cursive writing.  A note just for me. Reminding me to believ...
1 comment
Read more

Mem'ries

They really are like the beautiful song Barbra Streisand made famous.  Oh, Oh, mem'ries.... (insert music note emoticons here).  They may be beautiful and yet.  Misty, water colored mem'ries.  You know the words... I was given this unique piece of artwork a couple of years ago.  I had recently started dating her son and we had personally met, though she lived over a thousand miles away.  She mailed it to him to give to me.  Maybe I had impressed her as the type of someone who might like a piece of her personally hand made artwork?  A work of art that she had personally made. The first home my ex and I had purchased was a 700sf war box in West Seattle.  Back in those days we didn't take photos of ourselves and our surroundings every step we took.  Taking pictures happened when we remembered to bring the camera.  Carrying around your Nikon like a purse wasn't the norm. It was a cute little house that sat perched up off the str...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Flash of Time

"I wish somebody would have told me then, these are the good ole days" Macklemore sang to me on the radio as I raced to the airport a few weeks ago.  Didn't really think too much about it until I was flying home a couple of days later. I had gone to visit my parents to look through old photos and I found this one of my Nona with her beautiful sister-in-law Norina and fun loving daughter Anita.  They’re all standing around Nona’s stove.  Anita is pouring something into a strainer and Norina is smiling, with her cigarette, (yup, this was the early 70's, folks), with her back to the wall where Nona’s phone with the long curly tail hung.  I remember well the mustardy gold striped wallpaper and all of the custom cabinetry that Nono had made for the home they had lived in for many decades. This photo is screenplay stuff.  Nice screenplay stuff, like, my family really didn’t seem too controversial?!?  We weren’t oil tycoons or mobsters.  In this photo w...
Post a Comment
Read more