Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

That he [ed: I think he's still talking about his Uncle Fred] had a great-aunt that owned an island in Italy. At the time I was old enough to ask questions. He said, "She lost her head.", when I asked him why we were poor. I said, "Oh, she let herself fall for a gigolo?" He stopped me, he said, "No, you don't understand. They had a war and she supported the losing side and they beheaded her." I asked him why no one sought to get revenge. He did not like my question. He also had an aunt that lived to be 106 years old. And an aunt in Chelsea.

Her name was Zia Florinda. She lived in Chelsea. She was an aunt on my father's side (your grandfather). She was a widow and lived with her son. Named Carline [ed: Dad, did you mean Carmine?] He was a carpenter and he worked for a contractor. He was single at the time that I used to visit my aunt. I was old enough to walk from East Boston to Chelsea. My father encouraged me to visit her. It was a good walk to get to her house. I would go over the Chelsea bridge. And at that place, were docked the old Donald McKay wind-driven, clipper ships. All stripped of their sails and valuable parts. They were an eye sore and eventually the city got rid of them by taking them one at a time on the 4th of July evening. Towing it down the harbor and setting it on fire. Its lower decks loaded with rubbish.

My father would ask me to visit her and I don't know whether she was an aunt on my grandfather's or grandmother's side. She was aged about the same age as his sister. She died  during WWII. I liked to go there as she would always have me eat there. Just me and she made gravy [ed: spaghetti sauce] that was out of this world. It was an old recipe and she never parted with it. In retrospect it could have been patented and would produce a fortune. She used to put some [ed: can't make out the word] and other things like herbs. The pasta was spaghetti, it had a taste of its own.

Her son was a laid back individual, he drank a little and this upset her. She would tell him not to come home drunk. Not to drink. She would lecture him and he would stand there and smile.

He was a handsome man and he supported his mother. Paid all the bills, etc. He married late in life after his mother died and lived in the North End with his wife and children.