Guido J. Allegrezza

At first I was sad when I heard about an older couple who was vacationing in Tuscany, Italy in the town where my daughter is living. The husband died of a heart attack while they were taking pictures of the beautiful little town and the amazing view from that hill. I was sad for the poor wife who must have been so shocked. It must have been traumatic to be away from home in a place where you don’t speak the language and don’t know how to call an ambulance. But American students from the school where my daughter is studying helped the lady and made dinner for her.

Although it’s sad, I was thinking of my father. It’s funny how my perspective of my father has changed over the years through little “ah-ha” moments. This time I was thinking about how my father, Guido Allegrezza, who for me was my connection with Italy, making me want to go back for a second visit and this time try to visit the town his family came from, never got to visit Italy.

The only possibility for him would have been during World War II. He refused to talk much about the War. We know he was in the Battle of the Bulge and some details from the scrapbook my mother put together from telegrams, newspaper clippings and a few pictures. He may have been in Italy. But my dad died six months after his early retirement before his 64th birthday after putting five children through college. The ironic thing to me is that I have been wanting so much to go to visit Grace in Italy before she comes back in December, partly because, growing up with the name Allegrezza, being “Italian” (at least to my American friends) it is part of my identity. But what about my father whose parents came over from the old country when they were 19? His death was similar to the tourist in Cortona, he died within hours of having a heart attack when no one was expecting it. In a way I’m glad that he and my mom were not overseas, since that would have been complicated, but he had always wanted to die quickly. He hated hospitals and made it known that he didn’t want to being lying around in hospital beds like he had to while recovering from a major wound after the War. What if he had had that one chance to go see Tuscany and drop over there in a vineyard instead of in Ambler, PA, or inthe wirey insides of an ambulance on his way to Abington Hospital? He would have loved Cortona. He loved growing vegetables; he said he always wished he could live on a farm instead of in town in Milford, Mass. or in the suburbs in Ambler. He love trees, wood, rocks and working with them. He built beautiful stone walls out of sandstone all around the walkways and driveway of our house in Ambler. He built Mom a corner cabinet out of his favorite wood—cherry. He love cherry and I think mahogany too. He loved being outdoors.

Giuseppi Allegrezza (18XX - 1962)

Giuseppi Allegrezza was born in the Marche region of Italy which is in the north eastern part of Italy. He came to the United States when he was 19 in 19XX arriving at Boston.



He married Wilhelma



Interesting note: his brother Septimo married Wilhelma's sister.