Chapter Nine #3
‘It’s old.’ She resumed her cross-legged position and held the album so the others could shuffle up and view it as she opened to the first page.
‘More wedding photos. They married in Scotland. Nonno’s mother, Bisnonna – or great-grandmother – travelled over, which must have been a trek in those days.
Nonno doesn’t have any family. At least, not around Como,’ Jade went on, realising they probably wouldn’t know this part of their shared history.
‘His parents were from Lecco, but they ran away because they were pregnant.’ Reading the surprise in the gazes they turned her way, she grinned.
‘It sounds tame by today’s standards, but there was a big quarrel because Bisnonno’s family was better off than Bisnonna’s.
The rift was never healed. Nonno was born in 1942.
His father – also named Rocco, confusingly – had to join the army and then was killed in the war.
Nonno’s mother never remarried and died before I was born. ’
‘Do you know anything of Gran’s side?’ Rosalie’s head tilted questioningly, like a sparrow.
Jade shrugged. ‘There are probably a few relatives left in Mull, where Gran was born, but she was an only child and her first cousins all died before her. I’m used to us only having each other. Was used to.’ She corrected herself.
Erin scrutinised photos of Gran Mairead and Nonno Rocco signing the marriage register or cutting a wedding cake with a bunch of flowers on top.
‘Photography used to be expensive. That’s why there are so few early ones I suppose.
’ She paused at a faded colour image of a boy of about eleven with dark, slicked-back hair, studiously cradling a book. ‘Joey’s school photo?’
‘Looks like it.’ Jade had seen the picture before, but now she considered it anew. Although Joey’s lips were open to show gappy teeth, it didn’t look like a real smile. ‘Maybe you have his hair, Rosalie, only lighter. Gran’s was more like Erin’s.’
Erin glanced at her. ‘Do you both get your height from him?’
‘He is tall,’ Rosalie said.
Jade kept her eyes on the album, progressing along the timeline until baby Jade began to appear in square photos, wearing everything from baby onesies to a communion dress, colours distorted by passing years.
Jade tapped a picture of the garden of Villa Panorama.
‘That’s from when we had the hotel that Leo’s family has now.
There are fewer photos once Nonno died,’ she added sadly.
‘I think it was his camera. Sorry. I suppose you wanted photos of Gran and Nonno – and Joey – but mainly they’re me from now on. ’
She paused over a shot taken on one of the lake beaches, a boy and a girl standing beside a red beach chair.
‘That’s Leo and me at a barbecue. I think I was about twelve.
I look like a boy too, under that bikini top.
I was a late developer.’ Her eyes caught on Leo, who grinned at the camera, hair wet and rumpled, eyes dancing.
She’d never have imagined that, after a decade had passed, they’d spend hot, busy nights in his bed. Or that he’d leave. Or come back.
Rosalie quirked an eyebrow at Jade’s chest. ‘Looks as if you’ve got the boobs of the family now, though.’
It was a throwaway remark, but Jade felt strange to hear Rosalie lump together the three women in the room as ‘family’. Erin’s eyes widened, as if she’d also been caught by surprise.
Eventually, the album was returned to its drawer and Jade took out her phone to show them more recent photos of Gran.
On her screen, a beaming Gran was holding a gelato.
‘She was so funny, those last few days in hospital. First, she didn’t want to go in, then she didn’t want to stay.
When we were hanging around for X-rays, I had to visit the ladies’.
When I came back, the medical staff had taken her off somewhere and one of her slippers was left on the floor.
’ She laughed around a lump in her throat.
‘I had to wander around like Prince Charming trying to find Cinderella.’
‘Aw.’ Rosalie patted Jade’s arm.
‘Poignant.’ Erin patted Jade’s other arm.
Jade continued. ‘Then she was asked for a specimen and a nurse took it away. A different nurse came looking for it and said, “Where’s your urine? I wanted that!” – in Italian, of course.
And Gran looked at me and said in English, “The other nurse took the piss.” We got the giggles and probably everyone thought we were bonkers.
On what turned out to be Gran’s last day,’ she cleared her throat, ‘Sheenagh texted me to ask how Gran was. Gran took off her oxygen mask and said, “Tell her I’m not dead yet.” ’ Her voice strangled.
‘Not long after that, she opened her eyes and said, “I’m running down like an old watch.” And soon she stopped ticking. ’
Both Erin and Rosalie gave great sniffs. ‘Sounds as if she stayed with you as long as she could,’ Erin said huskily.
Touched by this crumb of comfort, Jade made time to control her emotions by beginning a WhatsApp group to share photos of Gran. She called the group Joey’s kids. Nobody commented.
When she’d posted a selection of photos, she leant back against the wall and turned her gaze to Rosalie. ‘Tell us what it was like being brought up by him.’
Rosalie shrank back as if under fire. ‘Um, good. I always had everything I needed.’
Erin drummed her fingers on her knee. ‘What was he like? Grumpy? Sweet? Cuddly? Abusive?’
‘Of course he wasn’t abusive.’ Rosalie rolled to her feet as if ready to run.
Or fight. ‘Neither was he grumpy. He cuddled me if I wanted a cuddle, but I don’t think of him as sweet.
He talked to me like an adult, not a child.
I had more freedom than my friends. If he thought rules were pointless – as he thought most were – he ignored them.
He believed in personal freedom and resented people poking their nose into our business.
’ Then her face cleared and she laughed, looking very pretty.
‘But he always had a penetrating stare for any boy he saw me with. He used to growl at them, “Guys like me know about guys like me.” They were usually confused, but he was telling them that he’d know if they messed me about. ’
Ruffled that Rosalie found that funny, Jade said pointedly, ‘He’s best placed to know that a guy like him could leave behind more than he bargained for.’
‘Interesting that he recognised that, though,’ Erin said, perhaps more fairly. ‘I’d thought maybe he had no empathy, but that suggests he has some.’
‘He’s just different,’ Rosalie replied defensively.
The reception bell dinged. Glad of the interruption as Rosalie’s description of Joey had made emotions ping around inside her like marbles on a tray, Jade rose to her feet.
‘Yara must be on a break.’ Popping on her jacket and sandals, she left the apartment to attend to a young man asking about market days.
Barely had she returned to Gran’s bedroom after telling him about Mercato Mercerie just outside the city walls and the indoor market in Via Mentana, when the bell at the delivery door sounded.
‘Plant people,’ Jade said, peering through the window.
‘Each month they refresh the planters in the public areas.’ Without being asked, Erin and Rosalie followed Jade into the commercial kitchen to ferry in orchids and lilies planted in glass bowls or shiny pink pots to Reception, the breakfast room and the landings, while the delivery man took out the succulents and ivies they’d replace.
The beautiful arrangements were one of the little touches that Jade loved to add to the pensione.
Five o’clock arrived and Yara knocked on the apartment door to tell Jade she was leaving. ‘A German guest says he’ll leave us a good review when he leaves on Tuesday,’ she said in passing.
Jade smiled at the young woman. ‘Always good to hear.’
Yara’s comment prompted Erin to show interest in reviews and whether they were used on the website, which led in turn to all kinds of questions about the running of the pensione.
Jade answered politely, instructing herself not to mind.
They’re showing an interest. Get over rough ground lightly.
We’re going to own Pensione Three Sisters together.
A new ding of the reception bell called her back to the front desk and, early evening being a popular time for guest traffic to and from rooms, she remained there to answer a stream of enquiries.
When she finally slipped back into the apartment, the bags of Gran’s clothes were tied and lined up.
Erin had researched a local charity that would collect them along with Gran’s bed.
‘I’ve booked the collection for Friday, but it’s online so I can change it if you want,’ she told Jade.
Two bags of hairbrushes and worn shoes, out-of-date magazines and half-used lipsticks had been carried outside for the next rubbish collection.