The brochure that my mother, Nives Rovedo Cappelli, had sent me from Poughkeepsie, New York only titled it The Hill, but on a background of red, white and green it was called “The Italian Hill.” My mother, native-born Italian daycare teacher, is also the author of a memoir titled Manhattan Immigrant Girl. 

Along with the brochure I found some articles about The Hill and the newspaper Il Pensiero, published right on The Hill. Since I was now living in St. Louis, Missouri with my loving husband Matthew Cornelison, I read all this with a great deal of interest while my husband babysat our two cats, Pearl and Taboo, in the kitchen, eating the remains of the Chinese pork fried rice we often ordered in when both of us were too tired to cook. While eating, he serenaded them strumming on his guitar.