{"id":627,"date":"2025-09-10T12:04:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/?p=627"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:04:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:04:31","slug":"45039","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Nonna and Nonno"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remembering Nonna and Nonno<\/h3>\n
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My author journey started with an interest in the story of my Sicilian grandparents, my Nonna and Nonno, who were separated during World War II but found their way back to one another. I wrote about it as a student in Los Angeles’s popular Writing Studio<\/a> class, where teacher Elana Golden encouraged me to pursue novel writing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nonna<\/a> was 18\u00a0years old when she and her family moved from Porticello, Sicily<\/a>, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the late 1930s. They sailed aboard the legendary Rex<\/a><\/em>, which appears in Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning\u00a0Amarcord<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once settled in Wisconsin, Nonna worked as a seamstress at a\u00a0garment factory called Junior House<\/a>. During the war, Franklin D. Roosevelt established the War Production Board<\/a>, which converted factories of peacetime industries into manufacturing plants for military equipment. And Nonna and her fellow Junior House seamstresses transitioned to sewing parachutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My Nonno, the son of a tabaccheria<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>owner, remained in Sicily until Italy joined the war on June 10, 1940. As\u00a0a soldier\u00a0in the Italian Army, he was stationed in Cagliari, Sardinia, the site of a series of Allied bombings<\/a>. In later years, he said little\u00a0about his military involvement but asserted that his loyalty was to King Victor Emmanuel III<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I found their stories fascinating, particularly the fact that their love could survive the time and distance that separated them. As I continued\u00a0writing, the story evolved. It was no longer about Concetta and Gaetano Agnello but instead about two fictional characters named Concetta\u00a0Balistreri and Gaetano Alioto. That tale is\u00a0woven into The Last Letter from Sicily<\/a><\/em>, a historical novel that sheds\u00a0light on the Sicilian experience during World War II. And now I\u00a0am happy to share it with you!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The-Last-Letter-From-Sicily-400.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The-Last-Letter-From-Sicily-400.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

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If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to my newsletter<\/a> for more content and updates!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remembering Nonna and Nonno My author journey started with an interest in the story of my Sicilian grandparents, my Nonna and Nonno, who were separated during World War II but found their way back to one another. I wrote about it as a student in Los Angeles’s popular Writing Studio class, where teacher Elana Golden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}