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In St. Louis, Missouri there is a section of town called "The Hill." It is a section of town where, 150 years ago or so, many immigrants from Italy gathered to live around the Catholic Church.
It is a famed neighborhood, famous for the best Italian Food and for a generation of great athletes such as Stan Musial and the DiMagio brothers.
One of those pious, strong families that lived on the hill was the Colombo family. Like many at that time, they produced several children, including two special women, Virginia and Josephine.
Josephine is my wife's Grandmother.
Virginia I didn't know when she was young and beautiful. However I have no doubt, from the photo's I've seen, that she was beautiful and if a bit more adventerous than her sister, she was still pious and obediant, like any daughter of her time.
At least any daughter on the conservative Catholic Hill in St. Louis.
Virginia met a dashing fun man named Rasti. Of course, Rasti wasn't his real name. A tradition on The Hill, as in most communities, gave most men fun nick names.
I do not recall what his "Christian" name is. He was/is known by everyone as "Rasti."
After WWII, where Rasti and most other men from "The Hill" served with distinction, Rasti kneeled in front of his love, Virginia, and proposed marriage.
Much to his delight, she accepted. So would have begun another wonderful Italian-American family from "The Hill."
But Rasti was a good man, and a good soldier, and a good son. He went to his mother and told her of his plans to marry Viriginia Colombo.
His mother refused.
His mother swore, as only an Italian-American mother may swear, that her son would not marry that "woman". As long as there was breath in her body, she would not allow the marriage!
Rasti was a good son. He did what he had to do.
He waited.
He did not rescind his proposal to Virginia, and Virginia did not ask to be freed from the promise.
She did what she had to do.
She waited.
For a month they waited.
Then for 6 Months.
Then a year.
Then 5 years.
Rasti was a life loving young man. He loved good wine and good food and good friends. Virginia loved Rasti and everything he loved--accept his mother. They stayed together, engaged and in love.
Rasti's mother was a strict traditionalist. She demanded respect and she got it.
She was the type of woman who closed off her living room, perfected it and covered it in thick sheets of protective plastic. These she did not remove, not even for holidays. This room was locked away in its pristine state, to be opened only for weddings and funerals.
And she refused to allow the wedding her son wished.
And he refused to be the groom at any other wedding.
And neither stubborness, famed on the Hill, which was famed for Stubborn people, waivered.
So they waited.
10 Years they waited.
20 years.
40 years.
Then, the most famed engagement on the hill shocked everyone.
Rasti's mother passed away.
Rasti held a great funeral for the mother he loved. He opened up the sealed living room, and invited The Hill to come a grieve.
Then the next day he gathered his friends and family, they gathered all his belongings, and they moved him into the house next door.
They moved him into Virginia's house.
The hill was shocked? They expected a wedding soon. Some who hoped for decorum expected it in a year. Some who knew Rasti and Virginia expected it with a day. No one expected them to move in together.
"We are not Living In Sin." Rasti explained with a smile.
"Then when was the wedding?" someone asked.
"Forty years ago" Virginia answered.
Sure enough, 40 years ago, despite his mothers prohibition, Virginia and Rasti married. They lived apart, in different houses, but on the same street. For 40 years they kept their secret for fear of Rasti's mother's anger.
Did Rasti sneak over during the middle of the night, to his wife's home? Did Virginia get lonely all those cold nights while her husband slept at his mother's home?
Part of me thinks what a wonderful love story. Two star crossed lovers going to such lengths to keep hold of each other.
Part of me thinks what a sad sad story. Was this union ever consumated? If so, how dangerous a procedure, for a preganancy was something that would have ruined them one way or another.
I wonder when Virginia realized that any future family was being lost in exchange for hiding this marriage.
No wonder she hated Rasti's mother so.
But these were not, are not, questions ones ask on "the Hill."
It was all over. Forty years of hiding and lies and forbidden love ended in sweet communal happiness.
Rasti moved in, and never were there plastic sheets covering any furniture in their home. They lived in their living room.
For all of 10, maybe.
Rasti was once the bard of The Hill, whom at one party not only answered questions of geneology for everyone on The Hill, but also the associated rumors and innuendo that went with them. He knew whose daughter left for california with which bum, and came back married to who's nephew. He knew which secretary ended up marrying which boss after the messy divorce, and who their parents were, and who their children were.
Last year Rasti started showing the signs of Altheimerz. Dimensia has krept into his life of joy.
As far dear sweet Aunt Virge, the woman who stood up to the man who was ruining the widow Catani, who organized the heterical divorce that saved her, and did so just 2 years ago, the woman who brought joy and love where ever she went, the woman who endured 40 years of half/marriage in a culture that demanded marriage of its women...
Last Thursday she passed away quietly.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Wow. Quite a story. I can't help wishing that Rasti had stood up to his mother when she was still alive, but still, they both made the choices they made. Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry for the loss of your wife's Aunt Virginia.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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