…………………….My mother’s father, Giovanni and her mother Chiara had nine children, four girls and five boys….I think my grandfather, in his younger days, was something of a rake!….All but my Uncle Tom are pictured here. Starting at the left….my Aunt Angie , Aunt Lillie, my Mom, my grandfather Giovanni, my Uncle Paul, my grandmother Chiara, my Uncle Vito, my Aunt Marie, my Uncle Lou and the baby of the family, my Uncle Daniel who passed away last year. They are all gone now, but have left a legacy behind of many children, grand children and great great grand children…….There may be a few great, great, great grand children too! My mother looked like her father, and she and my Aunt Millie had red hair. Three of the boys had blue eyes, and from stories I was told, were real ladies men. My Uncle Dan and Uncle Lou served in WW11. My Aunt Millie, and my Uncle Paul had two children. My mother, my Aunt Angie, and my Uncle Lou had three children. My Uncle Tom had one son, and my Uncle Dan had one stepson. The only one who took after his parents producing a large family of 12 was my Uncle Vito. When the whole family got together at my grandparents house in Brooklyn for the Holidays…..it was something out of a movie. They owned a brown stone on 11th Street and Avenue U. We would all gather in their finished basement. The kids, and there were a lot of us, used to run up and down the stairs of the three story house playing games….We had a great time…..something children today know nothing about. I wouldn’t trade those wonderful times for anything. When my grandparents passed away, first my grandfather at 97 and then my grandmother a few years later at 87, the gatherings ended. The same thing happened with my father’s family. The grandparents were the glue that held us all together. With each new generation the families get more and more distant until only the immediately families get together. Today there are families where even that is disintegrating……sad but true. For many “family” is becoming a thing of the past. I still have many cousins mostly from my Uncle Vito and his wife Aunt Tessie. They are all older than I am. It seems we only see each other at wakes. The family is getting smaller and smaller, and soon will only be remembered, as so many are, in the photos we pass along.