Monday, October 9, 2023
Teresa Mazzotta was born in 1926 on November 8th or 15th (depending on who you ask). She was born in Brooklyn, NY to immigrant parents. When she was just a few years old she returned to Grammichele, Sicily with her parents to care for her ailing grandmother. She told many stories of being a confused American child living in Sicily, crying for a hotdog, and getting sausage and peppers in return. It was a very different world from the one she knew, but she eventually grew to love Sicily and her grandparents and the rest of her family living there, and even the food… especially the food. She loved the lemon trees and the colors of the countryside and even had her very own donkey. Her grandfather would sit her on a wooden stool and tell her fascinating stories about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The Most Beautiful Children in the Forrest. She inherited her grandfather’s love of storytelling as she told us her own fantastic tales of riding in the sidecar of her uncle’s vespa, driving dangerously too close to the cliffside overlooking all the most beautiful mountain views. She talked about the city squares and the ancient stone churches and getting lost from her family in the heart of the city and being found again. She even wrote a book about this one.
Upon her return to America, she told the most fantastic story about sneaking onto the boat’s deck in the middle of a storm to watch the waves crash down around her. We lovingly called her Fievel after that story. Going back to Brooklyn was not easy for her. She was now a confused Sicilian/American child who was more fluent in Italian than English. Luckily, she had her cousin Angelo to give her the answers in class so the nuns wouldn’t punish her too harshly. She told stories here of roller-skating in the streets, attempting to play stickball, splashing in the fire hydrants and spending summers in Babylon with her family-friends and cousins. Her parents eventually gave her a beloved baby brother who she cared for as if he were her own.
When she was a teenager, WWII broke out. Her mother had a co-worker whose son was sent off to fight. For the entirety of the war, Teresa would help her mother send care packages of bread and cheese, dried sausages, and other treats to this brave young man overseas. When the war was over, both families were invited to the wedding of another friend’s child. Tersea was seated next to a “Louis Mazzotta” however, when his brother saw how beautiful this young woman was, he quickly switched the cards so he could sit next to her. Once Joseph Mazzotta learned that Teresa Bellino was the girl sending him the care packages, he truly and deeply fell in love. His whole life he would marvel about how his wife had been feeding him since before they even met. They married on a beautiful fall day in September, one that Teresa always describes as being magical. The skies were the most beautiful crystal blue, with beaming sunshine and fluffy white clouds. A lifetime later, she would look up at the sky and see the sun twinkle behind the white clouds and know that it was her beloved Joe saying hello.
Teresa and Joe went on to have 5 children and 16 grandchildren. After her children were grown, Joe (who was a scientist himself and loved education) encouraged Teresa to go back to high school and then college where she earned her diploma. She applied her education to her faith and went on to teach Catechism in the St. Raphael church for many years. Teresa’s faith lives on in her children and grandchildren. We all know Jesus because of her faith and her prayers and her devotion to our Lord. She studied her bible studiously, always having it open on her dining room table along with her concordance and her scrupulous notes besides it. As her children married and had their own children, and then those grandchildren had children, Teresa would look out at family gatherings over a sea of people and marvel at how all these people came from the love between her and her husband. She cherished the thought that each one of us were hers.
Teresa left us the same way she came, on two different days. She died at 11:53pm on October 8th or 12:15am on October 9th (depending on who you ask). In true Teresa fashion, she left this world the same way she came in.
My Nonna was very special to me. In her later years we would bring her coffee and pastries and sit with her for hours talking about everything under the sun. She told us all about her life, with all its hardships and sorrows and all its blessings and triumphs as well. Somehow the conversations always led back to food and to Jesus. She truly cherished each one of her children. She cherished their spouses and their children and their grandchildren. She was always in awe of this family that she created in love. I wish I could spend more time with her because it doesn’t feel like enough. I wish my son could have spent more time with her too, but I will continue to tell him about her and retell the stories she told. Maybe in this way we can remember her, until we meet again.
