I Remember Papa

The American Dream

My beloved papa, Edward Liberati, was left alone to raise five girls and one boy when my mother passed away with uremia, a poisoning of the blood because the kidneys have stopped functioning properly.

I am the youngest, and I never knew my mother because I was barely one and a half when she died. My papa, alone through our upbringing, gave us advanced university education, overseas study, and piano, voice, and dancing lessons. We all learned to speak several languages. And on I could go about how he dedicated his whole life to the six of us—all of whom, along with him, are in heaven, except yours truly.

Sylvia Liberati Rooney-Rosencrans