StoryCorps: Tony Gargagliano

Transcript for the Piece Audio version of StoryCorps: Tony Gargagliano

TG: My father was a goat herder in Sicily. When he came to this country he learned how to use a sewing machine and became a tailor. He never approved of me being an artist. He used to say, "Hey! Look at the bum! He's drawing and painting dirty pictures. All the nude women. He's a bum!"

My father, one day, came to visit me and he was 84 at the time. He says, "Oh, you know my third wife, she's a-go to Italy. She's a leave me all lone. And I told her, 'You go alone, you no find me when you come back.'" So I said, "Well you know you can get an annulment, Dad."
And he said, "What's that?"
And I said, "That's when one part of the marriage does not live up to their marriage vows. If your wife disappears in Italy then you have a perfect right. That's not a marriage anymore."
He says "You find-a me an Italian priest."

I found a monsignor who was head of a church and I set a date and took my father. We enter the room and the monsignor greets us. The first thing out of my father's mouth was, "You know father, it's not natural for a man to be without a woman." Because the monsignor, just one look at him and you know he's accepted his celibacy. My father continued telling his story, and he just-a speak-a like-a this. And the monsignor, he would say to me, "well tell your father..." And before I knew it I was translating english into english.
The monsignor said, "Tell your father that the church does not move very quickly."
My father said, "I'm in no hurry."

CC: Did he ever do it?

TG: No she wrote him a love letter, and he sent her the money to come back.

http://www.prx.org/pieces/19216/transcripts/19216