The Gold Bracelet: Memories of an Italian Grandma

Antoinette, the main character, becomes nostalgic and reminisces about her life the week before her granddaughter is to be married. Her memoir begins in 1906 as a 14-year-old girl living in a small town in Sicily. One night in the Piazza she was hit by a lightening bolt by a young man and cannot get him out of her mind. She believed he had the same feelings and fantasizes that he will be the man she will be married to someday. Her long-life best friend, Catarina is friends with his family and tells her that he has plans to leave on the next ship heading to America, along with two of his sisters. As luck would have it, her brother, Sal is also booked on the same ship. She hopes to be able to go along with him, but is told they do not have enough money to send both of them and that her help is needed at home to help her family. Her brother and her family communicate via letter until he has made enough money to pay for their voyage across the Atlantic.
The story continues with her and her family’s journey. And, as fate would have it, she is reintroduced to Calogero and finds out that he has the same feelings for her. There are some heart breaks as well as happiness, and continues until the day of her granddaughter Gina’s wedding.
＂A buon a Salute e Felicita＂ (To Good Health and Happiness)