Remembering Anna

(May 5th, 1924 - April 7th, 2004)

                                                                                                          

I’ve written a lot of blog posts for Patsy’s at this point – some of them have been personal, discussing the lives and legacies of various family members, while others have been more general, talking about celebrity appearances or food specials. This post I’m about to share with you now, however, has by far been the most difficult. It’s not because I don’t have a lot to say about Meema, because I do… but it’s difficult to write about her, because I want to make sure that I properly honor her memory.

To provide some background, Meema was a name that my brother and I affectionately called our Grandmother, whom many of you knew as Anna DiCola. (We weren’t the only ones who had a special name for her – my cousins John and Ashley called her “Grandma Roni”). Regardless of what name you knew her by, one thing is unanimous across everyone that met Meema; they all loved her.

She was born in Italy, and was the oldest of Patsy’s children. In fact, when Patsy’s opened in 1944, she was already 20 years old! If you remember Uncle Joe’s blog post, you’ll remember that he started working at Patsy’s as soon as it opened – the same was true for Meema. Even though she was 20, money was extremely tight in the early years of the restaurant, so she worked without pay. However, her parents said she could keep any money that she got from the coat-check room, which meant that in the winter she’d make a nice bit of money, and during the summer she’d pray for rain whenever she was running low on cash. : )

Meema continued to work after getting married, but stopped once she had her first daughter (Marie). At this point, the restaurant had really taken off, and she was able to focus on raising her family. Unfortunately, her marriage wasn’t perfect and eventually she divorced, but she remained a loving, faithful mother, and dedicated herself fully to her children.  

                                                         From left to right, that's Connie, Marie, and Frank, and on the bottom is Annie!

Once all of her children had gotten married, she returned to the restaurant and continued working (after raising four kids, it was probably relaxing!) Those of you who knew Anna probably met her at this point in her life. Being a phenomenal mother and grandmother, she had a very matronly aura, and everyone who came into the restaurant instantly liked her – many came to love her as if she was part of their own family, including some of our workers! One bartender who was with us for many years, Rocky, had lost both his parents when he was very young. He considered Meema a mother, and in his difficult life she was a constant source of comfort.


She had a great relationship with any customer that walked through the door, and considering how many people she interacted with on a daily basis, had a suprisingly good memory when it came to recognizing customers who'd been in before. Naturally, some were easier to remember than others - her favorite repeat visitor would have to be Rosemary Clooney! Any time they were together in the restaurant, they'd always ask how each other's children (and eventually grandchildren!) were doing, swap stories, and catch up.

                                                              Meema, Joe and Rose with Rosemary Clooney and Dante one night at Patsy's!


Meema really was the perfect grandmother; warm, cheery, constantly cooking, always smiling. She loved coming to the simplest events, like grammar school plays or sports events, just to see her grand-children flourishing. She also loved spoiling us – there was a bakery down the street from her apartment, and whenever we came over to her place or she stopped by our house, she always brought a box of cookies. When I say a box, I don’t mean a little thing with five or six cookies… this thing was PACKED! Great cookies too, including everyone’s favorite among my cousins and I: the legendary ‘rainbow’ cookie. I’m not really sure exactly what it was made of, but the top was chocolate, and then there were three layers (separated by jam) with the colors of the Italian flag in them. If you’ve ever seen these:



…then you know what I’m talking about. For whatever reason, they were unbelievably delicious, and whenever we got our patented Box O’ Cookies, the rainbow cookies were the first to go.
The cookies were just the beginning, though. Meema always had something cooking in the kitchen. She could make anything taste phenomenal. To this day, I’ve never had a meatball from any restaurant or home kitchen that tasted as good as hers, and she’d even take something mundane like string beans and make them delicious, dressing them up with sauce, potatoes, etc.

Meema’s true love really was her family, and while she enjoyed watching us grow up, I think she took sincere pleasure in seeing us spend time together. For this reason, we started a tradition where we’d go on a family vacation every year. As a little kid, this was one of the most exciting highlights of the year, right up there with Christmas and my birthday. The vacations usually lasted ~4 days, during which time I'd hang out with my cousins and brother the entire time. It was pretty great, because all of us cousins have always been really close, so even getting to do simple things with them, like eating dinner or watching movies, became so fun. While I didn't appreciate it at the time, it must've been really satisfying for Meema to be able to watch us all spend time together. She hadn't had the easiest life growing up, but all her hard work as a young woman and a single mother had paid off because she'd raised four great kids who became four incredible parents.

It's this devoted, extensive love that's so easy to take for granted, but that's the kind of love that Meema had for all of us. It really was heart-breaking when she passed away, but we were able to take solace in the fact that she had left nothing unfinished. She not only got to see her children grow up, but was also able to help them in raising their own children. She truly had a satisfying, fulfilling life, and while it was incredibly difficult for all of us to say goodbye, it's impossible for us to ever communicate how much we truly loved her, and how much she did for us. 

She always said this was her favorite picture!

 

~ Paul