On May 24, 1914, Elizabetta Cecelia Bevacqua was born in a little mining town in Tabasco, Colorado, the third child of Attilio and Lucretia Bevacqua.In the early 1900's, her parents had emigrated from Calabria, the most southern tip of Italy. They came separately and years apart. Her father made a fortune in the oil and mining business and sent for his wife and young son. Together, they had four more children. Atillio's luck ran out in Colorado and they lost it all. He gathered his family up and moved to Dallas where he had originally made his mark.
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| Attilio, Amelia, Josephine and Elissa |
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| Elissa about 5 |
Elissa, as she came to be known, was remarkable from the start. She was exotically beautiful and full of energy and curiosity. Her life has not always been easy. After the families sojourn back to Dallas, her father left his family when she was five. Her mother struggled to raise her 5 children by herself in a foreign land with limited personal resources. She was a skilled seamstress and found work at Neiman Marcus . it was especially difficult for her because she did not speak English. Some italian friends took her and her children under their wings and hired Lucrezia as a master seamstress in their furrier business. This helped provide for her brood but she could not properly feed and clothe them. She made the heartbreaking decision to place two of the children in the care of St. Joseph's Orphanage in Dallas. Not to be adopted, but to be cared for until she could take care of them herself. This took many years. Mom and her little sister, Josephine, were placed in the orphanage in the care of the nuns. My grandmother took several streetcars to visit them every week without fail. It must have been so difficult and heart wrenching for all of them. It has left an indelible mark on the fabric of their lives. But they survived .
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| Mom with her friends at St. Joseph's. |
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| Elissa and Amelia |
When she was a young woman, my mother came to California to find her father. He had been living here for many years, had remarried, and had a young son. During this trip, my mother’s destiny was sealed. On a sunny Sunday afternoon she went with a friend to a barbeque and there she met her future. My father fell in love with her at first site. He always said it was her beauty that captured his attention first, but the deal was sealed when she ordered a chocolate shake made with chocolate ice cream. He knew he had met his soul mate. When she left to go back to Dallas, my father took her to the train and ran past her car waving goodbye as far as his legs would take him. Being the romantic, impulsive man that he was, a few weeks later he went to Dallas to surprise her. Her walked into the store where she worked and asked her to go with him for a milkshake . He proposed on the spot.
The rest is history!
On her 90th birthday, my sister and brother-in-law had a party for Mom with many of her friends and family. My sister and I took her to Hawaii a few days later. She had never had a desire to visit Hawaii but she ended up loving it. We had so much fun and so many happy memories from that trip.
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| Blowing out 90 candles |
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| Waikiki beauty at 90 |
On her 96th birthday, my sister took Mom, her daughter, Ria, and myself to Italy for an adventure. Again, it was a time we all will never forget.
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| Tina, Mom and Julie in cooking class in Tuscany |
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| Ria, Julie, Tina |
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| Throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain, to return to Rome again! |
Mom never ceases to amaze all of us with her energy, her passion for life, her love and loyalty to family and friends. She is engaging and engaged. Everyone that meets her falls in love, just like our Dad over 70 years ago.
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| Still a beauty at 97 |
Happy 97th Birthday, Mom. I Love You and look forward to many years ahead. You are my inspiration and I pray that I enjoy the good health and longevity that you have been blessed with. Keep on being the free spirit that we all want to be!!!!!!!
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| It's never too late to try out a Harley! |
