Writing for Fun
Lucia - Sue Barker
October 2014
I remember being about 5 years old and I was very poorly. The doctor had been and I was in bed with a very high temperature. I was feeling very sorry for myself and had been crying. The door opened and there was my Nana, her name was Lucia. I thought this was a funny name but she told me that her parents came from another country called Italy. She had dark hair and a big nose and very lovely blue eyes. She was wearing an apron over her clothes, and she sat on the end of my bed.
She asked me if I would like a story, and I said, 'Yes please.' She told me a story about her parents who had come over to England before she was born. They had seven children and they all lived in one room; my Nan was the youngest. They all had funny names they were; Carmella, Concetta and Pepina, her sisters. Marco, Domenico and Genaro, her brothers. She told me that her mother was Maria and her father Benedetto. They were very poor but she said they were happy. She said that the only presents they got at Christmas came from the humpty back lady, who was very kind to them. Wow, I thought how lucky am I? I get lots of presents at Christmas.
I kept dozing off, but each time I woke up there was Nana looking at me. She had a lovely smile on her face and she kept telling me stories about when she was little. I loved them, she said her mum had played an accordion around the pubs in London, but that she spoke hardly any English, she had come to England when she was only sixteen.
My Nan said she had been taught by nuns but she didn't like them very much, they said her stitching was bad and pinned her sewing to her back and made her go round the classrooms as a punishment. My Nan was the baby of the family; she said Italians eat funny food, especially something called pasta but my Nan wouldn't eat pasta, her mum tried to make her eat it but she would spit it out. My Mum would go crazy if I had done that.
Nan said when I got better she would teach me how to skip, and we would go for picnics in the park. I really wanted to do that but I just felt so ill. I must have drifted off to sleep again, because when I opened my eyes my Mum was in my bedroom. I asked where Nana had gone and she looked a bit confused. Mum asked me to tell her what I meant, so I told her all about Nana sitting on the bed and telling me stories. I told Mum some of the stories that I could remember and Mum hurried out of the room saying she'd be back later. I went off to sleep again.
Mum came back later and told me I had been dreaming about my Nana, and it hadn't been real. It was only when I was much older Mum told me the story and explained that my Nana Lucia had died ten years before I was born, but every description and story I told her had been true. My Nana always wore an apron over her clothes when she was indoors.