Throwback Thursday: When Luggage Didn't Roll

When Luggage Didn't Roll

My Mom taught me early all the little ways to give back and at 4'11" – she would know...

My Mom's mother died during World War II when my Mom was only 5-years-old with Hitler's Army moving into Italy - my grandfather had a difficult time managing 9 kids on his own so the younger ones were temporarily sent to an orphanage. My Mom and several younger siblings were sent to 'Piccola Casetta di Nazareth' or Little House of Nazareth just outside of Naples, Italy. Living there allowed them to be safe, properly fed, clothed and spared some of the horror that happened at that time.  People all over that didn't have much would donate clothing, food all kinds of items to the kids living in the Little House of Nazareth. And to this day my Mom has never forgotten the help she received during that difficult time.

I was born in northern Italy but lived in Germany most of my early years while my Dad was stationed overseas with the US Army. As a child growing up in Europe our family would 

pack several huge pieces of luggage - suitcases, duffel bags, and trunks – anything that would hold the extra items we would collect from friends and family.We would take those huge pieces of luggage on an overnight train to southern Italy to that same orphanage where my Mom lived as a child. We would make that trek from Germany to southern Italy, several times a year, with a lot of bags – at that time luggage didn't roll – and making several stops and transfers and getting on and off trains. We would make a game out of it – forming a line each time and passing the bags one by one onto the trains, into the compartments, up in the overhead till the next stop or transfer and then again, passing each item in a line off the train and on to the platform. The fact that nothing rolled, the fact that we had to carry each over-stuffed over-packed piece – it didn't stop us then and it doesn't stop us today. 

Decades later, my sweet tiny little 4 ft. 11 inch tall Mom still collects clothes from her church and other friends, packs a couple extra suitcases, pays extra baggage fees and takes a very long overnight flight from Florida to that same orphanage, Piccola Casetta di Nazareth in southern Italy. 

My Mom participates in a lot of different organizations: cooks to feed the hungry, knits scarfs, donates time, money - and finds all kinds of ways to give back. She's amazing, my role model and my Mom.  

The bags roll now, there is a weight limit but my little Momma is rolling with the times. 

"No matter how much or how little we have, we can find ways to give." 

Maria Pia Krus

This blog is one of the ways I hope to connect and carry those items to all who can benefit from a little extra help. SUBSCRIBE and JOIN the conversation.