Excerpt
In the early ‘50s my granddad, Salvatore Cuomo, set sail for England from Naples with his new bride. See, my granddad was a POW in Nottinghamshire during World War II. After the war ended, something compelled him to stay. And so he hung around, picked up a job, and fell in love with the English way of life. He secured a well-paying job and needed a homegrown woman by his side — my grandma, Gerardina. Nonna (the Italian for grandmother) came from a large family — she had seven brothers — and always had plenty of people to take care of. Shoes to shine, laundry to fold, dinner to cook. Transplanted to the UK, she was suddenly at a loss. Salvatore worked all day. She didn’t speak a lick of English. So what did she do?
She adapted.