RIP Cousin Carmen
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:28 pm
TLAF's cousin Carmen Riccardi, Marietta's brother's son, passed away from COVID-19.
He was 91 and was recovering from an accident. So, it wasn't completely unexpected. But, damn.
A sweet man - funny, devoted to family (not just his own and various branches of the Riccardis and Ferrantes). We loved getting pictures of his great-granddaughters. We'd speak every couple of months. Boonie and I sent him a thinking of you card the other day. I hope he got it.
His dad, Uncle Jakie, was one of Marietta's older brothers who came over from Italy in December of 1910. It was Marietta, her younger sister Edith, and her older brothers - Dominic, Giacomo, Vincenzo and Giovanni.
Carmen was the person who confirmed the family legend that my grandmother was in the movies. In 1911, Sigmund Lubin built a state-of-the-art movie studio at 20th and West Indiana in the Swampoodle section of Philadelphia. The Riccardis and Chiralanzas (my great-grandmother's two younger brothers) lived on the block.
When I asked my grandmother how she learned English, she said "in the movies." I thought she meant the title cards because she loved movies. But, she and a couple of her brothers - including baby Americo - earned money as movie extras.
RIP Carmen
He was 91 and was recovering from an accident. So, it wasn't completely unexpected. But, damn.
A sweet man - funny, devoted to family (not just his own and various branches of the Riccardis and Ferrantes). We loved getting pictures of his great-granddaughters. We'd speak every couple of months. Boonie and I sent him a thinking of you card the other day. I hope he got it.
His dad, Uncle Jakie, was one of Marietta's older brothers who came over from Italy in December of 1910. It was Marietta, her younger sister Edith, and her older brothers - Dominic, Giacomo, Vincenzo and Giovanni.
Carmen was the person who confirmed the family legend that my grandmother was in the movies. In 1911, Sigmund Lubin built a state-of-the-art movie studio at 20th and West Indiana in the Swampoodle section of Philadelphia. The Riccardis and Chiralanzas (my great-grandmother's two younger brothers) lived on the block.
When I asked my grandmother how she learned English, she said "in the movies." I thought she meant the title cards because she loved movies. But, she and a couple of her brothers - including baby Americo - earned money as movie extras.
RIP Carmen