The Passing of an Original

Immigration is in the news so much these days. There are many thoughts and positions to be taken on how to handle the wave coming from so many other nations now. But today we are looking backward to the children of WWI immigrants. We are acknowledging that passing of one of those children. On Friday, November 2, 2007, Pierina Cappiali was found dead on her kitchen floor by her tenant. Ironically, the tenant is a young Hispanic girl typifying the latest wave of immigration. But let us look to Pierini and the manner of her passing. She had been in recovery from bone cancer, but that was not the cause of her death. It was her heart. Mercifully, it was quick. She was dead before she hit the floor.

This event brings together the adjunct members of Cappyland. They may or may not be blood relatives, but they are active participants in the life theater that is enacted on a daily, monthly, annual and even generational basis. Pierina such a person. One who was involved with the inaugural moments and ongoing saga of Cappyland, but who did not reside here. She lived a few doors down. She lived there all her life. In her passing, so passes another piece of what made this immigrant neighborhood so vibrant. Pierini was the daughter of one the boys who left Sardinia ever-so-hastily.

Unlike his brother, John Sr. (who married the young Belgium girl, Maggie); Pietro, known as Pete married his Sardinian sweetheart, Andreana. We have a picture of her US entrance papers. She appears as a young lady with large dark eyes; contained, but wary. Their first two children, Phil (ever dapper, known as the Duke) and Paul (the second boy who inherited his brother's title once Phil left home) were born in Philadelphia. They came to Greenwich along with John Sr. and his wife. Mary, their daughter, was born was born there as we the next two children. They moved into a house two short blocks up the hill from Cappyland.

John Sr., who woke up one day and simply anglicized his birth name, lived with his family at Cappyland at the base of the hill. Pete and his family lived halfway up the hill, just before the church. The families went back and forth, but there were differences. Pete's family was of a milder temperament than John Sr.'s. But each exemplified the hard work and thrift that made that era's immigrants eventually successful. Both families sent their children out to work very young. Working for and with the family was completely ingrained and any other model for family life was not even considered. Most of the socializing was done over Sunday dinner.

The two youngest children were Pierina and then the baby, John Peter, named for his uncle down the hill and his father. While Pete's children were more outwardly restrained, some them still carried the wild streak that had driven the original five boys to the New World. One of the best examples of this underground resonance was Phil. As the oldest child, he carried the most responsibility. He did so for years. But there came a time when the others were of age. One fine day, Phil went off for a motorcycle ride with his girlfriend, Bonnie. The next time the family saw or even heard from him was three years later. He arrived home on his bike, married, and carrying his first child.

Paul seemed even more subdued. He married a Scotswoman, Olive, had four children, and worked for GE for 35 years. It wasn't until retirement that the wanderlust overtook him. His family finally erected a webpage for the simple purpose of knowing where in the world he might be.

Mary was deeply religious as was her mother. Andreana refused to learn English and to the end of her days spoke only Sardinian. The little area of Greenwich where John Sr. and Maggie settled had been a haven for Sardinian families. Andreana was never really was out of her element. The grocer, the baker, the police, and the clergy were all from the same place. The Sardinian towns may vary, but the island culture disbanded as the families fled their homeland and reformed in pockets on this side of the Atlantic. The Greenwich enclave centered around their chosen hill on the new ocean's shore. Granted they traded the deep blues of the Mediterranean for the grays of the Atlantic, but the similarities to home were there.

Mary was the next to leave. She married her accountant, Al and moved out, leaving only Pierina and John Paul to care for their parents. John Paul was the baby and the most Americanized. He was the one chosen to go onto college. The two older boys had had to work to help the family, so their education ended with high school. The girls were not expected to do anything more than get a job and find a husband. That was the expectation for most women of that era, not just immigrants. Pierina broke from that mold and went to the University of Berkeley. This was before that school was popularized by the generation to follow. Hers was the Beat generation following WWII rather than the hippie generation of her younger brother, John Paul.

Pierina came back to NY and got a job working in Continuing Ed for SUNY Purchase, so that she could care for her parents. She finished her degree at NYU. John Paul also went away to school, but he chose the University of Michigan. His college days were during the height of the Vietnam War and he was active in the anti-war sentiment. At some point, he helped another young man to leave the US for Canada. That young man left John Paul his car and his identity papers. John Paul proceeded to vanish to his family for the next ten years. He didn't return home until his parents became ill. Phil, the first wanderer, returned once his parents became ill as well. He and his family moved to Stamford to be close and stayed until both of their parents were gone. The other brother and sister were raising their families already close to the home, so all five children banded together to help.

But Pierina had stayed in the home and was the main caregiver. Even after her parents died, she continued to live in the little house that she grew up in. She continued to work at the college and made her life about visiting her brothers and sisters and being an aunt to their children. She made time for the children of her cousins down the hill as well. Her Uncle John Sr. and Aunt Maggie of previous posts had four children. They, in turn, produced a variety of grand-nieces and nephews for Pierina's attention.

It wasn't until the grandson of John, Sr., John, took over Cappyland, that there was a return to much coming and going between the houses. Pierina's baby brother took a shine to his younger cousin. "Cousin" was the resolution to any cumbersome genealogical description and age disparity. The Cappyland cousin responded by keeping an eye on Pierina and making certain that the house was kept up and she was safe.

It was surprising when the police came knocking at Cappyland at 11 pm with the news of her death. Both J and JP had checked on her the evening before. It was only the evening before that JP had come down to talk to her. In true familial fashion he had wandered down the hill afterward to catch up on the events at Cappyland. He brought with him a red maple in a compounding bucket that needed to be transplanted. The two men settled into the expected "garage chat" that has been traditional since Cappyland was built.

The very next evening was spent up the hill with all of that family grieving the loss of their sister/aunt/cousin. Although Pierina had been to the doctor that morning; she suffered a massive heart attack in her kitchen while preparing farina. It was particularly poignant as Pierina was preparing for the next series of genetic treatments for bone cancer. They traced her last hours hoping for some clue as to what had happened. The family was concerned because her car was missing. She had been at her doctor complaining about acid reflux. She had not been feeling well and instead of driving, she called a cab to drive her home. It is hard to understand why she would have done so, but she had been increasingly erratic since her illness. Because of the missing car, the family was uncertain about the cause of death. It was found at the doctor's office over the weekend.

Hers was a quiet life. The wild and impetuous family gene was set to dormant once her family needed her. She never married, did not appear to want children, was content with her job, and then with her retirement. Other than the standard sibling bickering; there was no serious conflict in her life.

It was a simple life, filled with simple pleasures and pains. Pierina served her family through four generations. In her professional life, Pierina helped thousands of adults obtain the education they needed to fulfill their dreams. She adopted the life of a maiden Sardinian auntie that could have been lived in any of the past hundred centuries. The only nod to these modern times was the job outside the home. She filled a time-honored role that is rapidly disappearing from Italian families in the US. While her brothers and sisters and others will miss her, it is perhaps, their children and grandchildren who will feel the void most deeply. All children should have a maiden aunt to chastise and to spoil them when their parents are too busy or too tired. Many an Italian child has run and hid when his auntie pinched their face and told him/her that they were beautiful and getting so big. But they always come back for the special cookie, the kind hand, and the special smile that is reserved for them alone. So with Pierina's passing, so passes
that special person in the fabric of the family who lived humbly, but carried the treasure of family in her heart for all of the others. Perhaps her heart had finally reached fullness and could hold no more.