I started dating Nick, AnnMarie's brother, in June of 1979. With Nick and I, it was love at first sight and I know AnnMarie knew that. She knew we were madly in love and she knew that fact throughout the years. I first met AnnMarie shortly after June, 1979. The first thing I thought was, "oh! I love her voice!" I have always loved the sound of her voice. I liked its loudness, pitch, and sort of wrapped in a velvet material all at the same time. There were SO many holidays together with her at Mom Iula's dinner table. Both summer and winter season holidays brought us together. Winter, of course meant Christmas dinners. FEASTS is a better word for them. Her voice would ring out as she came down the cellar steps. AnnMarie's here!, I would say to myself. In early years, when you kids were younger, all would clipclop down the steps in and around your Mom and Dad. With all 5 of you there was quite a bit of greeting, and instant talk would begin back and forth between AnnMarie and Mom. Some English and some Italian, and I would listen and think, man-her voice is neat. 97% of the time my place(sitting) at the table was directly accross the table from AnnMarie. We all would eat ourselves crazy full and talk back and forth. The room was loud, TV going on, and it was Christmas!. She and I would be over on the sofa after eating and we would watch Violetta combing, brushing and "styleing" Melissa's hair to the point of no return. We would laugh at this. We would talk about "Mom's magic kitchen." The endless food and desserts seemed to magically appear out of the woodwork like magic. Summer brought great barbecues out back under the grape arbor. Idyllic in feeling. Lovely grape arbor, meats,fruits, wine, desserts---AnnMarie and I would catch up and talk about our kids. I've also loved hearing Nick's stories in later years now--about AnnMarie as a teenager, her clothing, fashion sense of style, and stories of her and Freddy. I loved AnnMarie's quiet, gentle, non-assuming manner when talking of weighty matters. I regret that in later years that our paths, Nick's and mine, took us on moves that created great distance from New England. Distance always makes it harder to keep up with family. Just this past September I found such a wonderful "thank you" on my cell phone from AnnMarie. That's what I mean about her caring. Her words, the way she said them-full of thanks for a simple little card. How I wish we had more time. My story is to convey the many happy years and times we were able to share. Thanks AnnMarie! Love, Roberta