If you must choose one friend in your life, make it Bill Persky. If you must choose two, add Joanna Patton. They gave me (Saint) Judith Kelman and Visible Ink; which shored up my soul.
The story of Roseto in the late 1940s was told to me by Ralph Stampone, Jack Parillo, and Mamie Ciliberti. Cousin Gary Stampone provided photographs; cousin Joe Peters confirmed who the folks were in the pictures. Caroline Giovannini was a font of info on all things Rosetan. Cousin Ben Tartaglia, the son of the Mary “Mix-Up,” helped with the details of life in South Philly, as did fellow native Gina Casella, fabulous president of AT Escapes. Samantha Rowe, research assistant, cracked Morse code, ladies’ hats, and historical Philadelphia for this one. Brandy Carrao Piche and Jack and Pat Carrao of Chicagoland gave me their family tree to pick and prune with love. The grace notes of heroism in wartime came from cousin Tommy Falcone, Navy Seaman, 2nd Class, who died at nineteen when the USS Franklin was hit on March 19, 1945. First Lieutenant Michael J. Cleary and Army Specialist Richard D. Naputi Jr. were killed in Iraq on December 20, 2005. Their heroic spirits fill these pages. Sister Jean Klene, thank you for your vast knowledge of Shakespeare, which I was so lucky to witness in your classes at Saint Mary’s; you truly lit this spark, while Reg Bain threw a gallon of gas on it when I watched him expertly direct Hamlet.
Thank you Jake Morrissey, who reads early and often. I’ve come to rely on his sound judgment and high opinion. I have two fabulous brothers, but I am blessed with a third: David Baldacci is a great writer, but he also has the biggest heart on the planet.
In the Roseto and Big Stone Gap traditions, friendship is everlasting and more precious than gold. My evermore thanks to: Chris and Ed Muransky, Mary Pipino, Kristin Dornig and Tony Krantz, Candyce Williams, Robyn Lee, Dorothy and Bob Isaac, Pat Bean, Brian Balthazar, Jennifer Bloom and Andrew Kravis, Nigel Stoneman, Charles Fotheringham, Hannah Palermo, Christine Onorati, Matthew T. Weiner, Andrew Hauser and Emily Suber, Joe Rudge, Jacqueline Cholmondeley, William Watson and Adelina Castro, Aunt Bunny Grossinger, Kathy McElyea, Lou and Berta Pitt, Doris Shaw Gluck, Dianne and Andy Lerner, Tom Dyja, Matt Williams and Angelina Fiordellisi, Christina Geist, Susan Fales-Hill, Charles Randolph Wright, Donna Diamond, Liz Travis, Betty Fleenor, Diane and Dr. Armand Rigaux, Monique Gibson, Sharon Ewing, Dan and Robin Napoli, Dagmara Domincyzk and Patrick Wilson, Gail Berman, Eugenie Furniss, Phillip Grenz, Joyce Sharkey, Spencer Salley, Robin Kall, Dana Chidekel, Tracy and Greg Kress, Cate Magennis Wyatt, Carol and Dominic Vechiarelli, Mark Amato, Mary Beth and Mike Allen, Meryl Poster, Sister Robbie Pentecost, Mary K. and John Wilson, Jim and Kate Benton Doughan, Richard and Dana Kirshenbaum, Marisa Acocella, Violetta Acocella, Emma and Tony Cowell, Hugh and Jody Friedman O’Neill, Nelle Fortenberry, Cara Stein, Dolores and Dr. Emil Pascarelli, Eleanor “Fitz” King and Eileen, Ellen, and Patti, Sharon Hall, Rosanne Cash, Constance Marks, Jasmine Guy, Mario Cantone and Jerry Dixon, Judy Rutledge, Jayne Muir, Father John Rausch, Mary Ellen Keating, Nancy Ringham Smith, Sharon Watroba Burns, Dee Emerson, Elaine Martinelli, Sister Karol Jackowski, Jane Cline Higgins, Betty Cline, Beth Vechiarelli Cooper, Robyn and Max Westler, Tom and Barbara Sullivan, Ninette Bavaro-Latronica, Brownie and Connie Polly, Catherine Brennan, Karen Fink, Beata and Steven Baker, Todd Doughty, Randy Losapio, Craig Fisse, Steve and Anemone Kaplan, Christina Avis Krauss and Sonny, Eleanor Jones, Wendy Miller Hughes, Becky Browder, Connie Shulman, Evadean Church, Miles Fisher, Marion Cantone, and Tom Leonardis.
Michael Patrick King, how lucky I am that you took that parking spot next to mine and your engine fell out and we fell in for life.
Ladies, I adore you and you know why, thank you: Michelle Baldacci, Cynthia Rutledge Olson, Mary Testa, Dottie Frank, Wendy Luck, Elena Nachmanoff, Dianne Festa, Joanne LaMarca, Jackie Levin, Hoda Kotb, Kathie Lee Gifford, Christine Gardner, Sheila Mara, Rosanna Scotto, Mary Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Ruth Pomerance, Jenna Elfman, Janet Leahy, and Susie Essman.
I thank my husband and daughter for not changing the locks. You are my heart. Thank you to my brothers and sisters; their families and the fabulous Stephenson family. My mother, Ida, is still teaching me how to live, I am eternally grateful to her.
As I wrote this book, I mourned the loss of dear friends and family, who were once angels on earth and now enjoy their heavenly reward. God bless my beloved cousin Paul Godfrey; Mary E. Burton and her daughter Margaret Gallemore; Frank Pellegrino Sr., Rao’s regal raconteur; Jack Hodgins, magnificent, award-winning innkeeper; Frank Delaney, divine storyteller, treasured friend, and Diane’s true love; Bob Minzesheimer, irreplaceable book lover/writer, loving dad, and husband; Judy Parks Krafft, my fabulous aunt by marriage; Hortense Mooney, devout and joyful; Betty Matera, Al’s shy and loving wife; Vincent Matera, the hilarious quintessential New Yorker, Marie’s Italian stallion, and Rosemarie’s perfect father; Robert Francis of Chisholm, Minnesota, the kindest and most gentle soul who ever lived; Rosalyn Angelini Mugavero, Roseto beauty, loving wife, mother, and grandmother; Rosemarie D’Alessandro, beloved wife and mother; Kenneth Ciliberti, perfect son and brother; Carol A. Ciliberti, wonderful wife and mother, Mitzi Thomas, dear friend, Jan Rohrs, good mother and friend; Joseph O’Connor, Trish’s dear dad; Dr. Brownie E. Polly and Barbara Polly, lifelong friends; Brooklyn’s Kitty Martinelli, bella mother and wife; Adrianne Tolsch, the hilarious, gutsy gamine, Bill Scheft’s beloved wife; mentor Earl Hamner Jr., who cut the path in the Blue Ridge mountains so all the rest of us might follow; Miles Coiner, the hippest man in any room, director/writer/professor, and Mary’s good husband; Kathleen Lang, Tom’s wife, Kaitlin’s mom, kind and generous, a fellow Lizzie on the Arizona Women’s Board; Frances Keuling-Stout, the madcap, original poet and Henry’s true love; and Lisa Obry, a Saint Mary’s girl from Jersey who was loyal, fun-loving, and the first in line to buy a ticket to any play her friend had written. And I would know: I was that lucky girl.
About the Author
Adriana Trigiani is the bestselling author of seventeen books, which have been published in thirty-six countries around the world. She is a playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. She wrote and directed the film version of her novel Big Stone Gap, which was shot entirely on location in her Virginia hometown. She is cofounder of the Origin Project, an in-school writing program that serves more than one thousand students in Appalachia. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.
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