This is the history of Giovanna Rachele Turri Zanoni. "Rachele", as she was known, was born on June 2, 1900, in a small paese called Livemmo in the Pertica Alta region of Northern Italy. She was the daughter of Battista Turri Zanoni and Domenica Turrini. She had three brothers and three sisters.
Battista and his sons were renowned makers of brooms, sickles, and rakes used in the harvesting of hay. The tooth of the rake is called a "spina", and, as a result, the family became known as "Spina". Rachele and her sisters were very close, never going anywhere without each other. The men would make the rakes, etc., and the women would bring them to market every week to sell. My mother would tell a funny story about how occasionally the teeth would come out of the rakes. She and her sister would hide out of the sight of prospective customers, they would moisten the end of the wooden teeth in their mouths to expand the wood, and then reinsert them into the rakes.
During World War I a young soldier named Luigi DePamphilis from Bugnara, a little paese in the Abruzzo region, was stationed nearby. He and his friend, Rosario Aloisi, would visit Livemmo. One day he saw this beautiful girl down at the community fountain doing laundry and asked her name. Rachele was with her sister and was told not to talk to soldiers. Luigi was persistent, however, and got to know her father. During the next few months he and his friend Rosario spent evenings at Rachele's house sharing meals, telling stories, and singing songs. Luigi and Rachele fell in love.
The war ended, and Luigi was sent home to Bugnara. As he was leaving he told Rachele that he was going to America to start a new life. He wrote to her and asked her to come to America and marry him. Rachele's father would not approve. Finally, when she turned twenty-one, she asked her father again, and he let her go. The one thing he asked was that they marry immediately upon her arrival in the United States. Rachele arrived in New York City, was met by Luigi, and they were married according to her father's wishes.
They left New York for Watertown, Massachusetts, where Luigi had family. Their life here was not easy. Soon after they were married, the Great Depression started. However, with a tremendous love for each other and their five children they conquered all of the obstacles life set before them and were happily married for sixty-four years. Throughout her life she never forgot her family in Livemmo, writing often, sending clothing during World War II, and then visiting several times during the years following the War. Rachele had a long, full life and died in March, 1988, at the age of eighty-eight.