Answer Your Love Letters

Book excerpt: The Di Marcos lived in the village of Casino, at the foot of Monte Casino. Above on the mountain, was the world famous Abby of St. Benedict. Eventually, the head of the family, Papa Pasquale De Marco made the decision to seek a better fortune in America. He took his three daughters and two of his sons with him across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the Charles street section of Providence, Rhode Island. Pasquale's eldest son, big Frank as he was called, remained back in Italy to take care of the family land and to pursue a promising career in professional boxing. After two years Frank's wife Anna, was wary of his fighting and wanted a child. Together they came to the conclusion to join the rest of the family in America. They settled on Luna Street, with the rest of the family, in the Charles Street section. Frank and Anna now had six children. Their eldest son was named Patty Di Marco and was the spitting image of his father. Someday he would retain the title his grandfather held as the adviser of the Di Marco family. At twelve years old he was already six feet tall, muscular and very handsome. Patty started fighting in the neighborhood at twelve years old. By the age of fourteen he became the undisputed leader of Charles Street. While attending Esek Hopkins junior high school, Patty asked one of his teachers, who spent twenty years in China, if she would teach him Chinese on her own time because they did not teach Chinese at his junior high school. Many years later his knowledge of the Chinese language, which Patty spoke perfectly, would prove to save his life in the Korean war. In his young adult life he was referred to as the king of Providence.