George’s Sacrifice

The young man with the button down shirt and brown shoes missed his bus today for that job in Rome. The young man was to be a builder but on the way through the village square in Cicerle he saw an older man with a white shirt and a gray cap fall to the ground near a water fountain. The young man helped the older man over to a bench and brought him water and then carried the older man up a hill outside the village to the doctor’s home...

That older man was my great Uncle Cosimo and the young man who saved him that day, and gave up his bus for a chance at a new job and a better life, was George. On a weekend when most of us are supposed to think a lot about sacrifice – about caregivers and teachers and parents, nurses and neighbors - I think about George’s selfless act. George went on to help care for Cosimo for many years and he remained in the Cicerele village building tables and benches and fixing broken windows for the town’s 300 some people. Monte Cicerle was a simple town about two hours south of Napoli where my grandfather Giovanni and his brother Cosimo grew up.

Neither knew George until that day in 1938. I remember listening to Uncle Cosimo and my grandfather tell stories under our gazebo when I was just 5. They had both come to America in the late 50s with families and dreams of opening the bakery with anisette cookies and canoli, and they would tell tales about life in Cicerele—Cosimo in his firey Italian and my grandfather trying to translate for me. I don’t remember most of their stories but I can picture them under that gazebo and I can remember the story about George, a true Moonlight Graham in my book. The young man who sacrificed his dream to eventually help two brothers have theirs.