This is my Nonna, Mary Parducci. She is my wonderful grandmother who taught me the Art of Crochet when I was 7 (1974). She was born in 1903 in San Francisco. When the 1906 earthquake came and left her family homeless and business-less, her father took her family back to a town in Italy called Guamo. She left Italy in the 1920's to join my Nonno, Gino, in California to get married. (Suffice to say, they met when my grandfather worked for her father's shop in Guamo. This is another whole story altogether!)

Mary has 2 daughters, Lena and Anna (my Mom). Neither of them learned to crochet from my Nonna, though Lena learned later on in life. However she did pass on this wonderful art to me! She started me out with a chain then proceeded to help me make a coat hanger cover in a hideous green. But by the time it was over, I was hooked!!!

The one thing that I will always remember is that she would tell me that the back of the work must always look as good as the front of the piece whether or not it will be seen when it is completed. This is how you tell the work of a true artist. I hold true to this even today.

When Nonna died in 1992, I lost my biggest fan of my crochet projects. But I know that in spirit she is with me watching out for me in all of life's projects!

Ti voglio bene, Nonna! Oh how I miss you!

My Nonna And Nonno Parducci with me on my wedding day 1990