December 21st, 1933

 I can't believe we've been in the city for over five years already! We have acclimated to city life quite well and have moved up to a larger apartment. The new apartment is more spacious and we have a spectacular view of the tree in Rockefeller Center. Many nights we find ourselves sitting by the window drinking hot chocolate and watching the ice skaters. We find ourselves wondering what our lives woudl be like if we would have stayed in Italy, or if our husbands were still alive. Having it be five years since the passing of our husbands, we wish we could visit their graves or at least see our family again. We have also started new jobs leaving the automobile factory behind us. We still keep in touch with all of our old factory friends, but it is hard because we are all in different social circles now.



This is the new street that we work on



December 21st, 1928

Dear Maria,

            We are so sorry we haven’t written sooner, but these six months have flown by. Things are going great so far and we’re really happy with all of the decisions we have made. Leaving Italy was the hardest choice we had to make, but we are thankful every day that it turned out to be the right one. We hope in the future to visit you or, if our financial situation continues to get better, we would love to have you come and stay with us for a while. The ladies at the automobile factory have turned out to be some of the most important connections we have made so far. Although they struggle everyday to support their families, it has been wonderful getting to know them. Like us, they come from all over, but many of them have been here much longer and it is sad to see that they have not made any greater strides in their careers. It is easy to understand, though, how much some of them struggle because quite a few are single mothers. It has been wonderful giving them any support we can and interesting to hear their stories. As you know, we are used to a huge family and a huge support system, so it is strange to hear about such a small family.

            We are still living in the same small apartment, but it is in the heart of the city and extremely cheap. We had the opportunity to move into a larger apartment, but we decided to continue saving our money for more important future endeavors. We have added many personal touches to our apartment and we think even you would be proud of our decorating choices! We really have begun to call this apartment our home and, as we said, the location is wonderful. We have made the Dance Marathon a weekly ritual in order to get to know more people around the city. We have met a few new men from the city, but we are still keeping our distance from any type of relationship. The memory of our husbands is still too strong, but we know overtime we will be able to move on. We know you will understand and we will try to write to you sooner! We love you and miss you so much!

Love,

Carmela, Gabriella, and Milania

On our way to the Dance Marathon with our friends!

July 22nd, 1928

Home sweet home!

Dear Maria,

          We were so glad that you wrote us back! Your letters are so comforting, but also make us miss you even more! We got your letter in June and it is now already July. The weather is beautiful here; it is almost 90 degrees every day. The sun beats down through the tall buildings and makes the sidewalks and roads steam. At night, though, it is nice and cool. We have found a small apartment to live in, just the three of us. We have also found jobs in a small factory down the street that makes automobile parts. It is dirty work, but we make some money. Many women who work there have very large families. They work many hours a day and still cannot afford nice things. These women come to work in the same clothes every day, with barely any lunch in their pails. We feel so grateful that our late husbands’ were able to set aside money for us. There was also one woman who could not read as well as the rest of us. She ruined one set of parts for an automobile and was beaten right in front of all the other woman workers. We prayed for her all that night, but unfortunately, we did not see her again the next day. Speaking of women, New York City women are much more fun than back home! Indeed, we had to handle lots of dirty work at home, but these women are free! We ventured out one night to a Dance marathon . Some of our lady friends taught us the dance called the Charleston. All you do is kick your legs back and forth, but it is so much fun! I hope that women back home in Italy are having this much fun, if not you should be! Although we feel comfortable in New York, we see many Italian faces and we cannot help but feel skeptical as to if they are enemies from home. However, we see many new faces too. New York City is like a mixing pot of people, they could be from anywhere! The three of us are thinking about joining NWP, which we believe stands for National Women’s Party. They are fighting to get rid of laws punishing women for being women! We don’t know if we should get involved in such a big group or just lay low. We need to discuss it more. We hope everything is working out at home and that you are healing well. We miss you terribly, write soon.

Love,

Carmela, Gabriella, and Milania

May 17th, 1928

Dear Maria,

            We are sorry we had to leave during the night, we just couldn’t let them take us too. We couldn’t risk putting all of us in danger. Do you remember Tony, our late husbands’ good friend? He was able to book us a train all the way to Bordeaux in France. We didn’t even need to pay anything for the tickets because of his kindness. It was a very long ride, we were told it was about 1,000 miles, but we were so grateful to get away. It took about one day, we slept most of the time because we were up packing all night. We had to wait in a hostel for a night until we could get on a boat to the United States. The boat ride was much more uncomfortable then the train, it was about 4,000 miles to even reach the coast. It took about 6 days because there were some bad storms. We brought a lot of money with us from our husbands, but the boat trip was still expensive. Don’t worry about our money situation though, we have enough from recent events. We know that you are missing your sons, as are we. But you should also know we are starting a new life in New York City. It has been a struggle to find some place to live, there are so many people in one area. Right now, we are looking for jobs during the day and sleeping in people’s homes at night. Even though the city is very big and scary, a lot of nice people have taken us in to their homes. We are nervous for our futures, jobs, and our families back home, including you. But we also know this was the best thing, we couldn’t have survived where we were. We miss you terribly, along with our husbands. Please stay safe, talk soon.

                                                Love,

                                                Carmela, Gabriella, Milania

June 1926 - Wedding Bells

On the 14th, we finally tied the knots to our long term boyfriends. It was a day that we've all been dreaming about since we were little girls, and we were so happy that we got to celebrate together. It was a huge ceremony, filled with friends and family from all around Italy. We found a church that would do the ceremony for all three of us at the same time. We are really looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together, and raising our children in such a huge, loving family.

Here is one picture of many to come of our wonderful wedding day.