Joanne is one of the worlds best. Outspoken, funny, demonstrative and full of wonderful and effervescent emotion.
I have only known her a few weeks but she already feels like family to me. We greet with hugs and a humour and a mutual appreciation of each other.
Today I bumped into her which was perfect, I really wanted her to be part of the project. Imagine if you will all of the answers from the mouth of a cheeky Sicilian with a charming New Yorker accent.
Name: Joanne
Occupation: Retired Teacher and Dress Shop Owner
1.Where were you born and raised?
Bridgeport Connecticut, Trumble Connecticut.
‘At that time we didn’t even have a High School so my Father didn’t want me to go to a Public school in Bridgeport so he sent us to a Private Girls Catholic School which was in another town. That was in Milford. So we had to drive every day.’
‘My Father was a Barber and my Mother worked in a small factory. We lived in a 2 bedroom ranch house, my Father I could remember when he sent us to High School because he had to pay so much he would run to the bank and take a loan out to pay for our school tuition because a barber didn’t make that much.’
‘I was very close with my father, because growing up in an Italian family, closer to my Father than to my mother, even till the day he died he called me every single day. It didn’t matter where he was or where I was. He would always stop at my Grandmothers house on his way home and every Sunday was at Grandma’s house and it was Pasta day and every wednesday night was pasta night.’
‘We all lived close, when we lived in Bridgeport growing up I lived in a three family house, we were 5 all girl cousins, my Grandparents owned the house and we all lived together.’
2.Tell me a childhood memory.
‘I think I remember growing up as a youngster my Father would have my sister and I on alternate Saturdays go work for him as cashiers in the Barber shop, he didn’t want us sitting around and doing nothing and I can remember sitting there and these men would come in and say, ‘We are going to take Joanne out for breakfast’, so they would always take me out for breakfast and my Father would say, ‘She’s supposed to be here working!’
3.What is your favourite season and why?
‘I like the Fall. When we are in upstate New York and even in Connecticut when you see the leaves change and fall, you were done with Summer, by September, by Labor Day you were happy to see a change, the leaves and the trees and the kids going back to school. To me its my favourite, it’s my favourite time.’
4.Tell me about someone you love.
‘Besides my children, I do love my husband very much. When I saw him for the first time and we would sit down and chat it was like, there was an instant reaction. As mad as I get and as angry because an English person and an Italian are as different as you can get, as an English person he is so even keeled but he is so good and so good to my children and being a second marriage he didn’t have to be. He had three children when we got married and I had two, two girls and a boy and his son who was absolutely the nicest boy in the world was killed when he was eighteen in 1979. He was killed in a car crash, he had just turned eighteen. We married in 1976 so it was only three years after we were married. I always wondered how things would work out with our children with weddings and so on, I never thought we would have to go to a funeral.’
‘There was a very deep attraction, to me it was the ‘Englishman’ and my ex husband was a real exhibitionist, really showy, I never realised how much that bothered me and Peter was so much more laid back.’ It was just a chemistry we had, we were each others good friend then and it developed into a romance and then we were the big talk of the town.’
5.What words of wisdom do you have for the reader about life?
‘I think if I could even impress on my children, live every day and enjoy every day, don’t let small things ruin your day because there are so many bigger things to worry about.’
6.Dreams for the future.
‘I think, I just wanna have a nice, lovely, remainder of our time with each other, just nice and peaceful and do what we want and make sure the kids are happy.’
Of course we talked much longer than the rest of the interview, about life, about people. We shared stories and opinions, laughed and felt emotional.
Joanne is 73 years young and has so much energy for life it’s infectious. I’m sad she doesn’t have any grandchildren yet, and it seems unlikely unless they are inherited. She would make such a wonderful Grandmother, the kind that feeds the kids sweets behind the Mothers back, pinches cheeks playfully & spoils the kids rotten.
Everything about Joanne is all or nothing, she’s in or out, loves you or hates you, will each the whole plate not just a bite. She’s perfect, I love her to bits, I hope you get to bump into her soon too and if you do, say hi, she loves to chat.
