4 Nonna Teresa loved the color green. Though she wasn’t one of those obses - sive people who dedicated her entire wardrobe to the color, or even made a corner of her house a museum of various emerald shades. In her primary years Francesca would always ask people, “What is your favorite color?” and Teresa would always grin and say green. Francesca was with Teresa for a lot of her formative years. Before she was old enough to attend school, Francesca would wake up early with her mother and father. A small part of her did it to say goodbye and send them off with a shy hug and dramatic wave. A bigger part of her did it to spend as much time as she could with Teresa. She was fascinated by her. She may have been old in age, but she had a way of making whoever she spoke to be on the same level as her, and toddler Francesca was no exception. They would sit together at the small breakfast table by the window, the colorful sheer drapes casted a dreamy shadow throughout the room. Francesca would watch the iridescent dawn sun slowly dance across the numerous items hanging on the wall. There were so many of them; too much to others, yet not enough to Francesca. While Teresa prepared them their usual soft breakfast, peaches and cream oatmeal, Francesca would flood her with questions. “What’s that, who’s that, who are they, who are they with, where did you get that?” Francesca never asked a question without having one to follow up with, and Teresa always had an answer. Francesca’s favorite questions to ask Teresa were: “Can we go to the park?” and “Can we go to the ice-cream truck?” because Teresa always said yes. Though Teresa always said yes to Francesca’s various adventures, she always made sure to sneak in something she wanted to do. Teresa would use this time to teach Francesca what she could without being able to communicate much. Passing down wisdom is important to Italians and Teresa made a point to do it any way she could. One day in particular little Francesca begged her normal beg to go to the
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