My Grandma Cusano

I am really really missing my Grandma Cusano. She was one fantastic lady! It has been just shy of 12 years that she passed away. If you had the chance to meet her, you would have fallen in love with her! She taught me soooo much during the time I spent with her. I was lucky to live so close. When I was little we spent alot time there! If my dad was on day shift, we were there during the day. And when he worked 2nd shift, we would go over and have dinner with her in the evening. My grandpa had passed away when I was just 4 so Grandma was alone. She lived in a huge old home that I thought at the time was scary! She has pictures of my great grandparents in an upstairs bedroom. When I would go up to the bathroom, I would have swore that the eyes were following me! They were in those big old oval bubbled glass frames! You know in those old photos they never smiled and they looked so mean. I was so scared to go to the bathroom alone! I was always glad when my cousins would be there, we would go up together and wait for each other! (Although I had one cousin that always wanted to go to the bathroom 1st, and then while I was going she would sneak down and leave me up there!) In Gram's bathroom, there was a closet and instead of a door, she hung a piece of fabric. We were always afraid of what was back there! I always peeked to make sure the boogie man wasn't in there! And her steps....they were steep painted steps and I think they were painted with semi gloss paint! Boy, as soon as we flushed, we flew down those steps! But...wait....when you got to the bottom of the steps...she has a chihuahua tied up down there! Mitzy was mean! She was gram's dog when I was really little but I still remember her! Then there was Chico, she had him until I was in Jr. high and then after that was Candy. They were all Chihuahuas. But anyway, back to my story! When we got 4 steps from the bottom, we would have to call grandma to come hold the dog so we could get by. As I got older and my legs got longer, I would get 3 steps from the bottom and jump as far as I could out of the dog's reach! I doubt the dogs were really as mean as I thought at the time, but when I was little, even in Jr high... I was so afraid of those dogs!

Grandma Cusano was always 29! She would never tell anyone her age! I don't know why. But she had a niece that was her age, and when age came up at a family gathering, she would tell Josephine not to tell her age because then we would figure out gram's age! When I was in my mid-twenties, I said to my grandma, "Carm, (her name was Carmel, so sometimes we called her Carm!) you know you really should start telling people you are at least 39!" It was too funny. It was not until she passed away that I knew her real age. She had the most beautiful white long hair but she always wore a wig. She NEVER NEVER let anyone see her with out her wig. I remember staying with her when she had her cataract surgery. I think then and only then I may have been able to see her for two seconds without her wig on!

She was an Italian lady with so much to share with everyone! Her food was to die for! She would have the family over and the food never stopped coming out of the kitchen! She would stand in the doorway with her apron on and say "Mangia, Mangia!" (Eat, Eat!) I have learned to make many of her recipes! She never measured anything. It was amazing to watch her cook! If you wanted some of her recipes, you had to watch her and guess the amounts! She made the best frizzailes, not sure if the spelling is right, but they were made from bread dough and shaped like an 8" bagel. After they were baked, she sliced them in half and kept them in a paper bag. They were hard as a rock, but to eat them, you drizzled them with olive oil and red wine vinegar and then sprinkled salt & pepper. I would let mine get a little soggy and then eat them! Oh...I think I will make some this week! My mouth is watering! She would make Easter Pizza, although we left off the "za" when we said it. It was a dough that was filled with tons and tons of eggs, some diced ham, macaroni cheese and basket cheese. Oh was it good! It is still a tradition for me to make at Easter as is the Italian Rice pie recipe that I put on my blog not too long ago! She also made the best sauce. She used her own canned tomatoes! Then she would put raisins in her huge meat-a-ballz!! They were so good! I think I learned my love for food from my grandma!

I also learned my love for gardening from her! She had a huge garden with the coolest old John Deere tractor! My husband loves JD Tractors and boy do I wish we had that old tractor! I can hear it running now! I used to love to watch my Uncle Mick on that tractor. Grandma grew corn, beans, tomatoes, you name it! I loved going over and sitting under the grape arbor with her while she would get her beans ready to can! She canned peaches, tomatoes, beans....she froze corn! She made homemade wine! She had grapes when I was little. But I think as I grew older, she may have bought the juice to make the wine. Her cellar had the most awesome smell. It had 2 or 3 huge huge wine barrels in it and it had a musty grape smell to it, I know it sounds awful, but that is the only way I can describe it! I loved the smell! We had a name for her grape arbor and I can not spell it...it sounded like "ca bong" or "ca bon" I am sure it was some Italian word, what it meant - I do not know! but anyway, I never knew it as a grape arbor but when I started talking to other people outside the nationality nobody knew about a ca bon, so I had to start calling it a grape arbor. It was long with benches down both sides. It was full of grapes and at the one end there was honeysuckle! When family came over in the summer, everyone sat under the ca bon! Grandma also had the coolest willow tree! It was off the back of her house. My brother and I would stand on her back steps and grab the branches and swing out like Tarzan as far as we could! It was awesome! Talking about smells, I loved going to Grandma's when she was canning tomatoes! I can still smell her kitchen. Pots of tomatoes would be cooking down for her sauce (she canned her tomatoes as sauce!) She taught me to can tomatoes. It is so much work but I hope to can again this year. It has been a few years since I have taken the time to can tomatoes.

Grandma would take me to church with her and when I was old enough to drive, I would pick her up and we would go together. We never missed Palm Sunday mass! That was our tradition! When we got home on Palm Sunday, my mom would make a big dinner and then I would sit and weave everyone's palms. I still weave my palms to this day! I do not think I ever went to my own Parrish for Palm Sunday mass until Grandma passed away! Then it felt so different. I guess that is why I am missing her so much, Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are just about here. I remember going to mass with her and on Palm Sunday and maybe even Easter, the Altar Rosary Society had a bake sale in the vestibule after Mass, and Gram always made something for the sale and then she also bought stuff at the sale.

I always wish that my kids could have experienced Grandma Cusano like I did! Tori was 3 and Cody was just a month old when she passed away. Tori vaguely remembers her. I have video of Gram holding her and singing to her in Italian! I tear up whenever I watch it! We have pictures of her holding Cody. I often tell stories of what it was like to be with Grandma Cusano! I love talking to my cousins about our memories of Carm! We laugh when we start remembering this and that!

I hope that I can be the grandma to my grand kids that my grandma was to me! (but hopefully it is many years down the road!!)