Peter was many things; a son, a husband, a father, an attorney, a proud Italian-American, and a historian. But most importantly, he was my Nonno.
I have always told people that my Nonno is my favorite person and my favorite teacher. I’ll tell everyone I meet how much I love my Nonno and Nonna. Nonno and I shared a love of ancient Egyptian history and this common interest created such a bond between us. My best childhood memories are the two of us looking through one of his hundreds of books in the basement while we sat at his desk or on the couch. Half of the books in my own collection are actually his. Either because he gave them to me, or because I just took them.
The best day of my life was when we finally got to walk the streets of Pompeii together. I had been waiting my whole life for those couple of hours. My sister Amanda once said to me that “he had been waiting his whole life for someone to care about that stuff as much as him” and she was so right.
My cousin said to me “eravete – e sempre sarete un team bellissimo.” You have been and always will be the most beautiful team. And we are. We are the book hoarding, history loving, Italian speaking, rock collecting, Pompeii exploring, drive the rest of the family crazy in museums team. And we always will be.
While there are no words to describe my Nonno, I want to share something I wrote over 20 years ago, that he still had proudly displayed on the filing cabinet:
My Nonno
My Nonno is so funny
He is very very silly
Remembering the dead was the central aspect of ancient Egyptian religion and culture. Stelae were used to commemorate the deceased and keep their memory alive. Stelae usually had an image of the dead worshipping a god/goddess and would also mention their job, and any family members such as parents, a wife/husband, or children. With this website, I want to create a modern stela to keep my Nonno’s memory alive.
Most stelae contained the phrase “given eternal life,” or “given life for everlasting eternity” which is what I want to do for my Nonno.
