Eleison

＂The church across the street was silent, there were no bells at night to call the hours. The bedroom door was not completely closed and let in some light that hit the mirror and was scattered in the mists. Dante watched as the light and the mists took on a form. He reached for his spectacles on the night table and put them on. In the glass was something he had never seen before: it was a creature with its wings folded. And then, slowly, the wings unfurled, feather by feather, until he could see the full wingspan of the angel in the mirror. It had the face of a woman looking down at something, and when she raised her head, he saw that the face was that of his daughter, Carmen.＂

Dante Alighieri Russo was a symbol of fortitude to his family-headstrong, honest, ethical, but at times unyielding and unsympathetic. With his death, his family learns to manifest that strength internally and in different ways: his daughter Nicoletta who once suffered from crippling anxiety realizes her psychic abilities; Dante’s son Bardo, beleaguered by women who want him, suffers the fate of an unrequited love and learns what it is to be self-actualized; and his wife Florence, whose stoicism and taciturn manner drove her husband crazy, breaks her silence and recounts the bittersweet story of how she and Dante fell in love. Eleison is a poignant family saga that delves into love and faith, redemption and reconciliation, mysticism and spirituality, and how we learn to accept our lives for what they are-then ultimately let them go.