How can I tell you about MOM? Where do I start?
She was kind, caring, loving, generous, especially with her heart, and she was funny. Yes very funny and I believe all of her seven children were fortunate enough to have received that quality from her. Besides her wonderful sense of humor she passed down so much more to each of her children. She armed us with a sense of pride, in who we were and where we came from. She instilled in us a sense of tradition, so strong that we have in turn passed it on to our children. Our homes and families are a reflection of her and the things she taught us. Every gesture she made was filled with so much love, that even now into my fifties I can remember and feel her presence so strongly, it's like she is here. Her wonderful scent, a mixture of fragrant powder, soft sweet perfume and Juicy fruit gum, still fills my senses so powerfully I have total recall of a time, place or incident. Her pocket book always had several packs of Juicy fruit gum in it, which she would use to reward the kids for some little chore, like picking up their coloring books. She also swore that the gum would keep her from having indigestion so if she ran out, we would have to run to the nearest store for replacements. She actually believed she wouldn't be able to sleep unless she chewed her gum before retiring.
She seemed to do things according to the "Old School" and amerced herself in "Old World Tradition". Yet she was so far ahead of her time it was unbelievable. The Holidays and the baking and all of the wonderful traditions she left us still remain in the family. Of course we have her wonderful recipes and my sister still brings me Moms Christmas Cake, and when she does it's like Mom is right there with us. My sisters in law have had to learn all of Moms recipes before getting married. It was like an unspoken contract, Pasta Fagiole, Eggplant Parmigian Potatoe Balls, or no marriage. Learn they did and to perfection. It's funny I didn't even know how to properly spell Sisters in law, or is it sister in laws? That's because to me they are sisters, never thought of them as anything else. More of Moms influence.
She never spoke of Women's Rights or asked for anything just by way of her gender. She got that respect because she gave it When I was younger I may have thought why does she stay in the house cooking and cleaning and taking care of us all the time? I always thought she was doing it because my father asked or told her to I never realized it was by choice. These were the things she wanted to do and she did them so well It was her choice. I guess she may have been a woman's libber long before it was fashionable.
My most vivid memories are of a house that always smelled of wonderful things cooking, pots rattling and boiling atop an old fashioned stove. A Refrigerator filled with wonderful leftovers, that she would top with plates to cover and keep fresh. I don't ever remember seeing Saran wrap or aluminum foil back then. She seemed to assign these leftovers according to each of her seven children. This continued long after most had married and left the house. She knew none of us had ventured far enough away from her that we wouldn't be back in time to have these wonderful leftovers that were far superior to any thing we could get elsewhere. I can still hear her voice, on the phone, asking me to come over and have some of her great chicken soup, she saved for me. I'd come to have my soup and she would say it's in the fridge, and then she would say not to touch the bowl in the front that was for my brother. She had these little care packages all over the refrigerator; she used them as little bribes to get us to come over. She was her happiest with a house full of people, she could feed.
One of my childhood memories was of her making the best toast in the whole world, on a toaster consisting of what looked like two metal wires bent to hold the bread in place. Only one side toasted at a time and she seemed to know just exactly when to turn the bread over. Always done to perfection, I can still taste it. It seemed that everything she did, she did to perfection.
As life kept assigning her new roles she performed each role better than the other. She was a great wife for almost fifty years, a wonderful mother to seven children, a fabulous Grandmother to seventeen grandchildren, and the greatest of great grandmothers to each of the children of her children's children. No one seemed to ever leave her house, it seemed someone was always coming to stay or moving back in. Grandchildren and great grandchildren adorned her couches like throw pillows and could only be taken home from her house kicking and screaming. It should be noted that the kicking and screaming although done by the kids was usually performed in accompaniment with Moms kicking and screaming.
There never seemed to be any measure of time in Moms house. Oh there were clocks on the wall and around the house but she always told time by what we had to eat and how long you stayed. She'd often tell my brother "where are you going you only had two cups of coffee" Or she would say to me "what's the rush I didn't even make your tea yet" When I was young I would guestamate the time by the comings and goings of my older siblings. I'd think it must be quarter to 11 my brother just had his third cup of coffee and is getting ready to leave.
Leaving was always the hardest part. You would literally have to start about an hour before you were actually ready to leave. There was always one more cup of coffee to have or a story she forgot to tell. Generally what took the most time were the many kisses we would have to exchange before leaving. It was always bye, kiss bye kiss, bye kiss be careful, kiss call me when you get home kiss, which in many cases was next door or around the corner. No we didn't travel far from her, why would we, what could be found elsewhere that could equal what she gave?
I believe my mother was the best physiologist in the world and she only attended school to sixth grade level, she married at fourteen and a half. Why do I think this? Well she could get inside of all of our heads and find our strong points and cultivate them and she could just as easily find all of our little guilt areas. This was her field of expertise, her specialty you might say. Generally we towed the line not because any of us were goody two shoes, but mostly because we were afraid of hurting her and God punishing us. Yes that about sums it up we were afraid of God and Mom and Dad. She would always say don't do this or that, God will punish you. So when we learned in catholic school that God was everywhere we knew it was true. He had to be everywhere especially if he was working with my mother.
My mother could accomplish more with a cup of coffee, a bun (Danish) in 5 minutes than a high priced physiologist in a year of hourly visits. She just had this way of working her food magic that worked so well on comforting us. I guess she invented the term Comfort Food? Almost every problem was solved with some food connection
I can't tell you how often I would arrive at her home with a problem, marital or otherwise, seemingly unsolvable problems. Amazingly into my second bowl of soup or slice of home made pizza, my problems would seem to lessen. That followed by a night on her magic couch, with her heat up to about 90 I would awaken the next day feeling problem free, except for a stuffy nose from too much heat. The thing about this was that you had to be careful what night this happened cause someone else might have been under treatment, and already ensconced on the magic couch. When that happened whichever family member was there would just get up and we would all play a game of scrabble. She loved that cause she knew, my sisters or nieces would get so involved in the game that we would stay up late into the evening keeping her company. That was the name of her game, keeping Mom company, she lived to have the company of her family around her. Around her we were, she had this thing she could do with her voice on the phone, that would send any one of us running out into the night, into the car and on our way over to her house, but not without first stopping at the bakery. We would ask her on the phone "what's the matter?" she would answer "ah nothing" and we immediately knew that Ah nothing meant coffeecake and about an hour around her table. It worked all the time, two simple words and she could have us running from all directions, but always in one direction "To Moms House"
I was always reminded of her when I would hear the song "Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's House We Go". There was no river and no woods but to Grandmother's House we would go and go and go.
We would offer up some lame excuse like " Mom I got a family to take care of too", but in seconds of being at home in her home we would seem to forget everything except how great it felt to be there. I grew up in my Moms house in Massapequa Long Island, so for me it was truly like going home. I could literally go up into my old bedroom with my kid, and be a kid again. She loved that and she would take care of us both like we were both kids, waiting on us hand and foot. Loving the company, loving the closeness, and just loving us….
I remember when I was young my Mom loved to stay up and watch Johnny Carson, we would open the sofa bed downstairs and watch him together. She would play a game with me, a game, which I believe all seven of us later played with our children or grandchildren. It was simply "you scratch my arm ten times and I'll scratch yours ten times". She always let us cheat and she would scratch longer or we would say let's start over, so it seemed like it was always my turn to get scratched. She had this knack of softly scratching barely touching the skin, and in a short time I would just fall asleep. I used it later on my son and grandson and it was like hypnosis they would fall asleep immediately. This game has remained unchanged in the family for all of these years since she left us. I am often reminded of it when I hear one of my great nieces or nephews asking their Moms to play the arm game.
I remember once watching a show on TV of the Kennedy's growing up and someone said to me "Wow wouldn't you have loved to grow up like that?" My answer came immediately, I didn't even have to think. I simply said "I loved my childhood, I wouldn't change it with anyone" Later in life as I was able to give my own child many of the monetary things that were perhaps not that abundant in my childhood. I remember thinking how sad that I can't give him my childhood instead. Thanks to my Mom I was able to give him all the love I had grown up around.
The amazing thing about our family under Moms leadership was that there didn't seem to be any difference in a sister, a niece a great niece or nephew we all just loved each other.
I guess it was because everyone seemed to grow up in the same house. We all spent so much time there even after we were married, and now we would bring our kids with us.
Today I think of my nieces and nephews like younger sisters and brothers. Maybe it's because I was the baby in the family, the last to leave the house. My nieces and nephews were there visiting and living with us that they seemed more like brothers and sisters to me. The closeness we all share is unbelievable, this came from one little woman, my Mom who passed this on to each of us. No matter how far we may now live from each other the bond is still so strong, that a simple phone call from any one of them could have me making plane reservations immediately.
Today my Moms house still remains in the family, my niece owns it now. It has undergone many physical changes but one thing never changes is her presence there. I can still get pleasure in going up to my old room and remembering my youth. The greatest pleasure is going up to my Mom and Dad's old room. I swear the beautiful scent of my Mom still lingers there, the soft powder, the light perfume and of course the Juicyfruit gum.
Your Loving Daughter Terese Corrodo
Other Sites I Have Created
Vincents Memorial
Marie's Memorial
Charlene's Non Sports Cards
The Sexy Sorceress
