Where it all began . . .
Sometimes things happen when we're young that return years later showing us God's marvelous plan for our lives. Perhaps it has been that way with you. Have you had someone in your life that has had an impact on you? Maybe it was your grandmother. Maybe it was a friend. In my life there was a special someone who sang Christian songs to me, told me funny stories, and read me Bible stories that I never forgot. She is the reason I am here today.

It All Began With Grandma.
In the year 1920 a lovely nineteen year old bride came to America with her husband. Her name was Maria Giuseppina Di Palma. She had been married in Rome to a young, dapper, well dressed gentleman from Naples named Salvatore Rella. The long boat ride from Italy to Ellis Island, New York on the Dante Alghieri ship (named for the Italian poet) was typical of most boat trips in those days. Transatlantic voyages from Italy to New York usually took two weeks, often a very uncomfortable trip. Ships were usually crowded and many travelers didn't have cabins so they stayed on deck the whole trip. My grandmother didn't speak any English, and on top of it all Maria Giuseppina was pregnant and sick the entire trip. Unfortunately, she lost her baby after she got to America.

My grandmother and grandfather settled in a small apartment in Brooklyn and began their life together in America. My grandmother took in a little red haired foster child named Clara, and she fell in love. She nursed that precious baby as long as she could. However, she had to give the baby back, and this caused her to become very depressed. Eventually, she had three children of her own: my mother Mary, the oldest, my uncle Dominick, the middle child, and the youngest child, my aunt Nettie whose birth name was Antoinette. Things were going well for my grandmother, but she hit a huge bump in the road of her life. When my mother Mary was just about to enter high school my grandfather walked out on the family, suitcases in hand. Afterward, my grandmother was terribly depressed and even suicidal. A teenager at the time, my mother Mary had to abandon her dreams of becoming a dress designer in New York and had to get a job in a dress factory to help put food on the table. My uncle Dominick also had to work.

In those difficult times, feeling abandoned and alone, my grandmother took long walks to get away from things and think about her life. One day in 1936 as she was taking a stroll, my grandmother came upon Fulton Street which happened to be near the elevated structure of the old BMT lines of New York City's transit system. Underneath this dark structure were some storefronts and businesses. Grandma heard the sound of beautiful music and singing coming from a storefront church on Fulton Street. On the spur of the moment she decided to go inside and see what it was all about.

Grandma Finds Jesus and Peace of Mind
That night my grandmother heard the good news of Jesus Christ and found the joy and peace that she had been seeking for such a long time. As a child grandma was a religious girl, and she had always loved Jesus. But now it was truly a personal experience. After my grandmother found Jesus, instead of feeling sad and depressed she was walking around her house singing and praising God! She was an entirely different person! Gone was her sad countenance, gone was the loneliness and despair that she knew. My mother Mary, Dominick, and Nettie all noticed the drastic change in their mother's demeanor. One day my grandmother needed help around the house, and the children hated doing chores especially washing the dishes. But my grandmother, who was very inventive, had a unique way of getting the children into the kitchen to do the dishes. She would start singing, "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes, she'll be coming around the mountain when she comes'", and before you knew it the children would be drawn into the kitchen, each grabbing a towel, and helping grandma do the dishes! Before long they would be singing right along with my grandmother and enjoying every minute of it!

When my mother Mary was about nineteen years old she met and married my father Anthony, a very handsome young man. After my sister and I were born my grandmother raised us because my mother was still working. Grandma would sing Christian hymns to us and tell us stories about Jesus, and we always loved her and enjoyed her company. She also talked about Barile, her home town in Italy, where she worked in the chestnut groves as a girl. She made us laugh when she told us some funny stories about her donkey. One day when she was walking home from the chestnut groves with an entourage of workers following close behind, her donkey, who was probably tired, decided to sit down on the road and take a rest! He wouldn't move off the road no matter what my grandmother or anyone did. No one could pass by on that narrow road with that donkey sitting in the way. People began shouting and yelling and getting angry. They shouted in Italian, "Get that donkey off the road! We want to go home!" So young Maria Giuseppina, my grandmother, started shouting at the donkey herself, but he still wouldn't move. Being a resourceful person who could find a way around anything, my grandmother got an idea. She took some sticks, rubbed them together, and made a fire. She placed the hot pile of sticks underneath the donkey's tail. That stubborn little donkey got pretty uncomfortable, and he immediately leaped to his feet and began walking down the road! Everyone laughed and finally got to go home.

How My Grandmother Influenced My Life
I never forgot my grandma's story about the donkey and all the other stories she told me, especially the ones about Jesus. I would always tell my friends, "When I get to be 70 or 80 years old I'll be just like my grandma!" I never realized that you don't need to wait until you're older to come to God. In fact, I found Jesus Christ as my personal Savior in 1966 at the young age of 20. My mother, my father, my sister, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, and many of our family members have also dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ because of Grandma "Maria Giuseppina's" example. My grandmother was a wonderful example of persistance, long suffering, forgiveness, and Christian love. She was ridiculed for her faith in God, rejected by many, but one day even those who rejected her came to know Jesus Christ-- people just like my father. Even he himself marvelled at how forgiving she was to him in spite of how many times he taunted her. He drank alcohol, he gambled, he laughed at her faith in God, but all that changed when he found Jesus Christ for himself. God, who is the ultimate life changer, changed my father inside and out, and he came to appreciate my grandmother and her walk with God while asking her for forgiveness.

Being named after my grandma (my middle name is Josephine for Giuseppina), means a lot to me. Because of my grandmother's prayers I am here today. Grandma lived to the ripe age of ninety nine, and then she went home with the Lord. She is now with my mother who went to be with the Lord thirteen years before my grandmother. One day I will see my grandmother again and thank her for being an example of faith to me and our entire family because we came to know Jesus Christ because of her. How could I ever forget her? (Click here for photos of Grandma and family.)