Smile to life… and life will smile to you
My mother died two days ago… she was in Brindisi in a hospital…
Her name was Rosetta Abouskela Favia…Rosy for short…
My mother was a very jovial person… her motto was “Smile to life and life will smile to you”… and she really lived with a smile…
I was thinking… what if she is with Tikva, what would she do… she would take charge and make sure that her great granddaughter has all she needs… because that is what my mother did… take care of people…
When I was four I went to kindergarten… my mother was picking me up from school (called Homecraft House)… and on the way we passed by the house where she lived when she was a teenager… The apartment was on the mezzanine floor… and my mother showed me where her room was… and she told me that she was sometimes sneaking out by jumping out of the window… she must have been quite precocious…
When she was fifty her husband Guido had a heart attack and died two days later… It was the first time he had a heart problem… so sudden a departure… Yet my mother took it with a lot of courage… she had a son of fifteen to take care of… my brother Giorgio…
Why did she stay in Brindisi… instead of moving to Milan or Paris… where she had family… instead of staying in the deep south of Italy…
Except for a brief period in Venice, my mother had always lived in southern Mediterranean… in Alexandria where she was born… in Athens, in Haifa, in Beyrouth and in Brindisi… She felt more comfortable in that part of the world… people are warmer and more hospitable… what is a pity that she became a widow that early in her sojourn in this port city…
My mother had a full life… and she made the best of situations… always… whatever the hurdle… When my wife Orit left the house… my mother hopped on a plane to take care of her granddaughters, and stayed quite a while…
Whenever Gal or Sharon had some friends traveling in Europe… they were given two addresses… either my Aunt Lina’s (my mother’s sister) in Paris… or if they were going to Greece, to my mother’s house, in the dead center of Brindisi where they could take the ferry to Greece…
That of course is after being fed with a meal of the best Mediterranean cuisine…
I’ll miss you Mamouni… I certainly miss your cooking… how you made things out of nothing, whether it is in the kitchen… or in repairing a suit I burned when ironing… I always knew that if I needed something… I could call you…
Ciao Mamouni, je t’aime mamman, Iassou Kiria Rosy… Sagapo miteramou…
SMILE TO LIFE AND LIFE WILL SMILE TO YOU
My mother died two days ago… she was in Brindisi in a hospital…
Her name was Rosetta Abouskela Favia…Rosy for short…
My mother was a very jovial person… her motto was “Smile to life and life will smile to you”… and she really lived with a smile…
I was thinking… what if she is with Tikva, what would she do… she would take charge and make sure that her great granddaughter has all she needs… because that is what my mother did… take care of people…
When I was four I went to kindergarten… my mother was picking me up from school (called Homecraft House)… and on the way we passed by the house where she lived when she was a teenager… The apartment was on the mezzanine floor… and my mother showed me where her room was… and she told me that she was sometimes sneaking out by jumping out of the window… she must have been quite precocious…
When she was fifty her husband Guido had a heart attack and died two days later… It was the first time he had a heart problem… so sudden a departure… Yet my mother took it with a lot of courage… she had a son of fifteen to take care of… my brother Giorgio…
Why did she stay in Brindisi… instead of moving to Milan or Paris… where she had family… instead of staying in the deep south of Italy…
Except for a brief period in Venice, my mother had always lived in southern Mediterranean… in Alexandria where she was born… in Athens, in Haifa, in Beyrouth and in Brindisi… She felt more comfortable in that part of the world… people are warmer and more hospitable… what is a pity that she became a widow that early in her sojourn in this port city…
My mother had a full life… and she made the best of situations… always… whatever the hurdle… When my wife Orit left the house… my mother hopped on a plane to take care of her granddaughters, and stayed quite a while…
Whenever Gal or Sharon had some friends traveling in Europe… they were given two addresses… either my Aunt Lina’s (my mother’s sister) in Paris… or if they were going to Greece, to my mother’s house, in the dead center of Brindisi where they could take the ferry to Greece…
That of course is after being fed with a meal of the best Mediterranean cuisine…
I’ll miss you Mamouni… I certainly miss your cooking… how you made things out of nothing, whether it is in the kitchen… or in repairing a suit I burned when ironing… I always knew that if I needed something… I could call you…
Ciao Mamouni, je t’aime mamman, Iassou Kiria Rosy… Sagapo miteramou…
SMILE TO LIFE AND LIFE WILL SMILE TO YOU
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