UN: britto08
Time Period: 1906
Country/ies of Origin: Italy (go to U.S.)
LN: De Fiore
DH:
Orlando Cesare (21)
DW:
Ginevra Teresa (20)
DD:
Renata Alessandra (nb)
It had been six months since
Orlando and
Ginevra had taken
Ginevra's little siblings and moved from Tuscany to New
York, and things were going well. The family had a nice flat above the dry goods store where they all worked.
Orlando was still working as a delivery man until his English improved, but
Ginevra's mathematical skills had been discovered and she had been promoted to managing accounts for the store.
Adamo and
Teodora,
Ginevra's younger siblings, had taken over her job cleaning, and were both in school and making friends. The whole family was taking classes at the settlement house nearby, learning English. And
Ginevra was only months away from delivering the couple's first child.
Ginevra couldn't help writing glowing accounts of their new lives to her best friend back in Tuscany,
Pia. Her account sounded so good that it inspired
Pia to write her and ask for help in coming over herself.
Pia had grown up the eldest of six siblings, and she had married at age fifteen simply to get away from the poverty. Her husband was a man ten years older than she was, and he soon had her pregnant. She suffered three miscarriages before her husband was killed, trying to break up a drunken brawl.
Pia wanted nothing more than to leave Italy and its sad memories behind her, and she asked for her best friend's help.
Ginevra talked it over with
Orlando, and the couple agreed they would be her sponser and help her get a job, but their financial situation was still too tight to allow for much more than that. So
Pia made the long journey alone and arrived in New
York a few weeks before
Ginevra gave birth. The De Fiores had gotten her a job as a seamstress, and Mr.
Doyle allowed her to stay with them for a few months, until she had enough for a place of her own. This proved to be a blessing when
Ginevra went into labor. She was the one to run for the doctor
Ginevra had been seeing as well as the one to take
Adamo and
Teodora out of the flat while she was giving birth.
Ginevra safely gave birth to a baby girl, whom she and
Orlando named Renanta
Alessandra,
Renata because it means rebirth, to symbolize their new lives in a new home, and
Alessandra after
Ginevra's mother. Little Renanta is a strong, healthy, and beautiful baby, and both mother and baby are doing well. The little two-bedroom flat is getting crowded, which means
Pia is now actively looking for a place in one of the boarding houses nearby, so she can have space but still be near enough to be a doting "auntie" to her new goddaughter.