About Me

I was born in Chicago as the oldest of seven children of the Paoletti family. (A typing error on my father’s birth certificate changed the spelling of the family name on every birth certificate after that!). I am an Italian American, teacher, poet, mother of five, grandmother of nine, and currently the family’s matriarch. I was raised and educated in Chicago and taught Spanish in Chicago Public Schools as an Illinois licensed teacher for more than 20 years. No longer affiliated with a school system, I continue to teach Spanish privately, which is one of my passions. Another passion is poetry writing, two poems of which are included in this memoir. I hold an advanced degree in Social Sciences, speak Italian conversationally, have traveled to Italy multiple times, and have researched old manuscripts in the archives of small Tuscan towns.

In addition to the time spent in Italy, and living in Spain for a year as a young adult, I have traveled through 106 countries, beginning as a teenager and young adult, often hitchhiking in those days with a backpack. I have visited all 50 states of the USA, bicycling through half of them, a sport I still enjoy along with cross-country skiing. I am Giuditta’s great-granddaughter, and perhaps, somehow, her unconventional approach to life and seeming fearlessness have sifted through the generations onto me!

As one of the chapter titles indicates, I grew up in a world foreign to Giuditta. An excerpt from the chapter sums it up: When folks would tell me that I was lucky for my abundant life, I would retort that it was not luck; rather, I had created my own opportunities through my own labors. I now realize that my great-grandmother, Giuditta, the immigrant mother of my family, created possibilities of opportunity through her unwavering sacrifices, for me and every other person of the family who was born in this country on this continent of North America.

Like so many immigrant families who came to America, Giuditta left behind the only world she had ever known in search of the possibility of a better future for her children and their descendants. She endured hardship, uncertainty, and sacrifice so that future generations might live with greater opportunity, stability, and hope. Her journey reflects the shared story of countless families whose courage and perseverance helped shape new lives in America while preserving the strength and values of their homeland.