Insert story about continual instruction on how to program VCR.
Sophie Bartel Eustace
Sophie Bartel Eustace married her first husband ??? Eustace Sophie and her first husband had 5 sons together. Her first husband died of appendicitis. She remarried (Golins). Sophie buried two husbands as well as her five sons. Her son Charles Eustace was the last to die when he was 65 and she was in her 80s. Sophie had been living with Charles and Johanna Eustace in the Bronx at the time of Charles’ death. After the funeral, Sophie climbed up the 5 stories to the apartment.
Grace Ragucci – All Souls Day
Recollections of Tony Ragucci (1/28/10)
He said that on All Souls Day his mother said that the dead walked the streets at night. She said that you couldn’t look out the window because of this.
Nardi Family – Recollections
Phone conversation with Jean (Turco) Walko recorded by Joe Ragucci
Over the last week we have been talking as a result of Aunt Ann Kusklyk death. Several items worth recording about the Nardi Family came up and are recorded here (to be moved to a more complete post later).
- Aunt Ann Kusklyk died Jan 19th after getting pneumonia last week. She was one month shy of her 94th birthday. For the last 10 years she was not really alive suffering from alzheimer. This started to be noticed when her husband Michael died. We moved her into a Assisted Living home in Edison for several years until she got so bad that she was moved closer to Jean in Toms River. Over the last 4 years she didn’t even talk any more. Her body was healthy which is why she lived so long.
- We talked about this family history BLOG and Jean mentioned that she has very few photos of her family. She didn’t even know what our grandmothers maiden name was. We agreed to get together when it gets warmer to share what we have.
- She remembers that our grandfather was adopted. In looking at the Ellis Island record it appears that he came to the US with someone who was his brother but had a different last name.
- She remembers that our grandmother was from a wealthy family that disowned her when she married our grandfather. She also remembers her being a poor cook.
- She said that her father (Yonce) worked on a ship and he jumped ship in NY which is how he ended up here. She remembers him talking about be amazed at banana’s which he had never seen. She also remembers his talking about being ashamed of how much he ate so he actually ate at mulitple places so no one knew.
Lombardo, Maria Rizzo – “Son Frankie”
Maria Rizzo Lombardo had two children, both named Francesco (Frankie), that were born and died in the USA. The first was born in Beloit, WI and died after 10 days. The second was born in Brooklyn and lived for 14 months. Mom (Rose Lombardo Ciaccio) was about 11 when he was born and 12 when he died.
Rose Ciaccio – things she told us in her nursing home years
As recorded by Rosalie Ragucci-Cook (her granddaughter)
By the time I started dating my husband, John, my grandma was already in the nursing home. She absolutely adored John. He made her laugh and he’d ask her great questions about her life. We still laugh today about “Riley”. Grandma told John one day that someone (I don’t remember who) was “living the Life of Riley”. John asked Grandma “Who’s Riley?” She said “Oh, he had it good!!” She never told him who Riley was (old TV show character) but we still joke about Riley all the time.
One day, she told him about her trip to America. Her family was Italian but lived in Tunis, Tunisia because her father worked there. He came to America and she came with her mother and siblings later. They left from Marseilles, France. She said that she remembered her mother making them be quiet and making them stay away from the windows during the trip and she said that the windows were all painted black. They came to America during the war so they were trying to keep the ship dark at night so that it wouldn’t be bombed. In fact, after the ship dropped them off in America, it was bombed on the way back to Europe.
My grandmother fell twice in her later years. Each time, she literally broke one of her eyes. She was almost totally blind in the last 6-8 months of her life. At that point, she developed “blind senility”. She could see shadows and light and dark but not even enough to make out a shape. It would make her think she was seeing things and it was heartbreaking. In her last year of life, before she became blind, she would ask me if John and I were going to have a baby. I confided in her that we were trying. After she became blind and very senile, she would say to my mother (her daughter Rose) “bring me the boy. I want to see the boy”. My mom would ask “What boy? We don’t have any boys.” My mom was an only child, I was an only child, there were never any boys. Grandma would ask to see the baby, the boy. So I always knew that my baby would be a boy because my grandma told me before I was even pregnant. She never lived to see him but she would have loved him!
Benjamin and Julia Cook
Benjamin and Julia Cook are cousins and are only 3-1/2 months apart. They have been best buddies their whole lives. People always ask us if they are brother and sister, especially when we spent a week in Manasquan together in 2008. They look like twins. They spend so much time together that they act like brother and sister (and fight like brother and sister too!). If they’ve been apart for more than a couple of days, they start asking to see each other.
At the age of three, Ben and Julia had their first “sleepover” at naptime in Ben’s room. They each had their own mat on the floor with their own pillow, blanket and stuffed animal. Ben had his Winnie the Pooh bear that he always sleeps with. Julia had Ben’s Piglet. At first, they were very quiet and then they made little noises for 45 minutes. Apparently, they told us later that “Pooh and Piglet were talking to each other”. They were oohing and ahhing and whispering very sweet nonsense words to each other. I would say that this was their first true bonding experience.
Marcella Ford (Jean Cook’s Mother)
Marcella Ford (Jean Cook’s Mother)
Kathleen Cook Simpson’s recollections of her grandmother (recorded by Rosalie Cook):
She had scarlet or rheumatic fever as a child which weakened her heart. She had a heart attack when Kathleen was about 10 years old (approximately 1976). She wouldn’t go to the hospital – she layed on the floor for a whole day saying it was just her back. Finally, Jean and Bill came over and took her to the hospital. After that, she was on blood thinner medication (Coumadin). Years later, she fell and broke her hip. She needed hip replacement surgery. She was evaluated by cardiologist and they warned her of the risks of the surgery but told her that without the surgery, she would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She chose the surgery but they had to take her off the Coumadin before the surgery. She passed away during surgery.
Also, she used to be a firefighter.