Angie & Michelina

....whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Who are the great among us? Matthew 20, 26 - 28 provides us the answer to this question. Is it the President or some Congressman or your neighbor next door? Is it the Postmaster who just was the recipient of some award given to federal executives? What did she do? And if she accomplished something to warrant an award, what about the hundreds of subordinates who are at her beck and call? The ones that are serving her, are they chopped liver? Why is it the ones at the top seem to always get recognized? Why is it that they are the ones that always reap some monetary gain? Many times it's earned at someone else's expense.

This past Sunday I met a wonderful woman who truly deserves to be given an award. Her name is Angie (I won't reveal her last name because she would get mad at me if she found out). I've known this woman from a distance for about twenty years. She used to live in my neighborhood, one street over from mine. Every time I see her she always has that infectious and radiant smile on her face. I don't know many details of her life, but the little I know are enough to fill her good book in heaven. Angie is a wonderful mother and wife, and has such magnetism that no matter who meets her becomes her friend.

I first met Angie at the Sacred Heart Church. She was an indefatigable worker volunteering her time for the many social activities surrounding the church. She was very active in the Italian Society at church and served at all levels of that society's structure. She was the catalyst for keeping the various traditional Italian feasts and would always encourage the younger members to become active. Along with her husband Al, who was her alter ego, they made the perfect couple, an inspiration for all newly weds.

Angie was from the "old stock", they say they broke the mold when she was created. I hope you have been blessed in meeting a person such as her. She made herself available to anybody who needed help. To this day I can picture Angie and Al getting all dressed up for the annual Carnivale dinner dance that was held just prior to Lent. She loved to have a good time and enjoyed a good meal with friends.

As Al got older he suffered through many physical ailments including triple bypass surgery and eventually succumbing to a long fight with diabetes. Angie never left him. She made sure that she was always there for him. Angie became his eyes when he went blind and she became his legs when they amputed both of his. She had her opportunity to put him out to pasture but she didn't. Does this woman deserve the Federal Executive of the Year award? No, she doesn't need it nor would she want it. I make it a point to always thank her for what she did and continues to do. She is great in the Lord's eyes for she truly understands what it means to serve.

The second woman that left and indelible mark on my mind passed away about ten years ago. Her name was Michelina (Me kay lee na) a wife and mother. I remember her from my weekly Sunday excursions from the North End to Revere. I would accompany my mother and stepfather as we would go and visit his brother Ralph. We didn't have a car in the family so we would walk over the bridge to the old City Square train stop in Charlestown to get the Woodlawn bus. My step father would always make it a point to stop at Modern Pastry to get either some sfogliatelle (sfohl ya tel lay) or a ricotta pie. I was taught at a young age that you never went empty handed when you went to visit someone. The good thing about it was that you got to share in what you brought, so you made sure you brought something you liked.

Ralph and Angie lived in a two family house. They were an interesting couple and I will relate some more of them at a later time. They had the first floor apartment and Angie's sister, Michelina lived upstairs with her husband Toto (Thaw thaw) short for Antonio. Staying at Angie's and Ralph's was boring for me because there was no one to play with. As soon as I finished dinner, I would go upstairs to find Michelina's grandson, Steve who was roughly my age. He lived a few houses down, but Michelina would always call him to come over whenever she knew I was coming. She was in tune with everything.

I would always find Michelina in the kitchen. That was her dominion. She was a medium built woman and I remember that she was always very presentable, everything in place with her hair always done. She always had her apron on and it seemed like she was always cooking something.
She had a raspy but sweet voice and would never raise it. She seemed to be always in control. She was the perfect matronly picture almost as if she had jumped out of Good Housekeeping Magazine. If Jesus chose Peter to be his rock, then Michelina was the solid foundation of this household.

There were many problems in her family but she always seemed to steer the ship calmly out of danger. Toto was a barber who had a penchant for spending his tips on the horses at Suffolk Downs. I know there were times that he came home a loser but she always found a way to put food on the table. In her subtle way she got him to curb his addiction and kept peace in the family. Michelina's beauty was passed on to her three daughters and one son. The youngest daughter would eventually be a finalist in the Miss. Massachusetts' contest.

Michelina endured many sufferings; two of daughter's getting divorced, another involved in a horrific and face disfiguring car crash and the disappointment in hearing one daughter converting from Catholicism to a Jehovahs Witness. To a Catholic back then this called for ostracism. This hurt Michelina very much but she never shut her daughter out of any family events, she continued to treat her the same as the others. With all the trials and tribulations going on about her she would always maintain a positive outlook and kept a smile on her face.

I'll tell you, Martha Stewart could never compare to her. She was great with flowers, a superb cook, a very good interior decorator and great with animals not to mention her granchildren. I will always remember her dog, Rusty, (I think that was his name - my anti seizure medication that I've taken for 40 years has finally taken it's toll on my brain cells). He was an old mutt, reminded me of the dog, Old Yeller. He seemed to have the disposition of her husband Toto. She loved that dog so much. One day she found out that the dog had a tumor and was probably going to die. Instead of taking him to a vet, Michelina decided to perform the surgery on him herself. It didn't look too good for a few days but with her constant care and attention she was able to prolong that dog's life for two additional years.

When the vet found out about it, he was incredulous. Those last two years, I noticed such a change in that dog. He had become so attached to her, he would never leave her side.

When I think of people, like Angie and Michelina, tears start welling up. They did so much, yet never asked for anything in return. That's unconditional love.

If you know of an Angie or a Michelina in your life make it a point to hug them and thank them for being who they are.