She Came-a Callin’

As if crossing the ocean on her own at 27 with a 6-year-old wasn’t enough; at 67 she decided to cross it again.

And why not? This woman was fearless.

Maria Gatti Latini had married Giuseppe Latini in their hometown of Anagni, Italy in May 1913. She immediately became pregnant, so he left for America with the intention of returning with hard earned money to make a better life.

World War I changed their plans. He had already served in the Royal Italian Army in 1911 but was still draftable; that likely would have made Maria a widow, so he decided to stay and sent for her.

By the time the baby was old enough to travel, the Atlantic was too full of U-boats that likely would have made Giuseppe a widower.

So they waited it out, him in New York, her in Anagni.

For six years.

Maria would clearly rather have rather stayed on her father Domenico’s farm, where she was a natural.

Her father was short of sons, having lost two to war (Giuseppe at 27 in 1915 and Angelo at 19 in 1917); his youngest, Eraldo, only 19 when Maria left, had set his eyes on a career with the rail service in Rome. Domenico treated Maria like a son because she worked like one, and he eventually left her an inheritance accordingly.

But Domenico too had traveled to America frequently, and knew a better life awaited his daughter there. He let her go, though he would visit her once or twice in the mid/late 1920s.

So Maria came to America.

Maria and Annunziata braved the crossing and in May 1920 docked at Ellis Island where Giuseppe came for them. And guess what? She immediately became pregnant again with my uncle John (1921), and two more times in the subsequent five years (my mother Palma in 1923 and my uncle Fiore in 1926).

She and Giuseppe worked hard but made a wonderful life raising their family and enjoyed multiple grandchildren.

When Giuseppe passed in 1958 at the age of 69, Maria considered that the reason she came to America was now gone. So she decided to return to Anagni one last time.

Her children wrote to their Zio Eraldo, and waited. There was an acknowledgement, but they remained unsure. After all, it had been 40 years since she saw her kid brother; at the

time she was a young woman and he was a teenager; now they were both sexagenarians. Would they even recognize each other after all those years?

When she got back, they asked her how she possibly found her brother Eraldo when she landed.

“Oh, I call-a him.”

“What, Mom? We didn’t have a phone number; do they even have phones on the farm?”

“No, I no use-a the phone; I call-a his name, loud: ERRRRRRAAAAAALLLLLDDDDOOOOOOO!!!”

When I related that story to Eraldo’s children when we first met 24 years later, they laughed and told me the parallel story. They too had asked their father how he would recognize his sister at the airport after so much time passed. “Don’t worry,” he told them, “we’ll find each other.” So he stood in the reception area and, without a phone, called her: “MMMMMMAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIAAAAAA!!!”

They found each other. And they had an incredible visit.

Buon Cumpleanno Nonna. Maria Gatti Latini was born on March 15, 1893.