One Italian Family

 One Italian Family

Grandmother was born into a moderately wealthy farming family near Naples, Italy in the late 1800s. She was one of three daughters born to Antonio Bamonte and his wife.

The girls, Vitallia, Stella, and Autilia had many advantages due to the wealth of their parents, including a tutor who came to their home to instruct the girls in the rudiments of education.

Vitallia took her opportunity seriously and as their parents aged, she assumed the responsibility of growing the grapes, which were transformed into wine and the olives that were converted to olive oil.

Stella and Autilia each married young men who followed their dreams to the land across the sea where the streets were paved with gold and anyone could become wealthy beyond imagination.

The two younger girls produced large families that included strapping sons and beautiful daughters. Vitallia wrote to both of her sisters, asking that they send their sons to Italy to help her operate the family farm/business enterprise.

Because WW II was already underway in Europe, neither Stella nor Autilia trusted this opportunity; they feared their sons would be conscripted into the Italian Army and sent to fight Mussolini’s war, on the side of the Nazis.

Because of her age, Vitallia could no longer manage the business without help, so she married a young man, whose obvious intent was not to assist this wealthy, elderly woman but to make himself her sole heir. His plan succeeded.

When Vitallia Bamonte passed into eternity, her young husband continued to manage her property and to assume its ownership.

I must admit that every time I purchase a bottle of Italian olive oil at the grocery store, I wonder if I am buying something that should already belong to me.