FINDING OUR ROOTS

What is this book about?: It’s an intimate, multigenerational mother-daughter memoir rooted in secrets, silence, and sacrifice – passed down from one generation to the next.

In 1915, my grandmother Carmela left the remote village of Rotondella in southern Italy. Her daughter—my mother, Laura—was born in Pittsburgh and grew up determined to leave the past behind so she could become fully American.

Decades later, as my own life unraveled under the weight of a divorce, my son’s heroin addiction, breast cancer, a bilateral mastectomy, and my father’s death, I set off alone to Italy, searching for truth and belonging.

I found Rotondella and family, but I also uncovered the past traumas and beliefs of the malocchio, omertà, rigid Catholicism, abject poverty, arranged marriages, patriarchal control, Mafia, and suspicion of sexual abuse. Only then did I begin to understand how these forces shaped not only Nonna’s life, but also my mother’s—and my own.

By honoring the courage of the women who came before me and confronting the generational trauma they carried, I was finally able to open my heart to the grace of forgiveness.

Something to consider: Could it be that by understanding the trauma passed down by the women before us, we can begin to heal—and finally break the bonds of the past, for our own sake and the sake of our children?

What you can expect from these meditations: Together, we’ll explore the power of finding our roots and the complex, often complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. Please join me.