25/11/2024
𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 𝗜𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 (𝗡𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗮) 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗮 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆!
I’m in Italy, in the Prosecco region where she lives and we celebrated with her yesterday with another 30 of us.
We’ve enjoyed seeing her cut a big cake and be visited with respects by the local mayor.
I was honoured to give the speech (In Italian!) and told everyone how since I was little that our Nonna Rosa was always very good at growing plants.
I went on to tell the story of how one summer as usual, she had grown many beautiful flowers around her house and one day when I was five years old, with my brother Damian we used to use a stick to whip off many of the flower heads!
I remembered my grandmother seeing her destroyed plants and shouting out. "What have you done to my flowers??!!!”
I went on to say sorry to our Nonna Rosa, and said I hope she forgave us because I still feel bad about this which was met with much laughter!
Our Nonna Rosa being born in 1924 was born before the internet, before the computer, before the first flight into space and even before television.
Can you imagine how much she has seen our world change?
Today if only our grandfather (Nonno) Giorgio, her husband was there to celebrate with us.
But we knew he was there with us all in spirit and celebrating with us.
We sang Nonna Rosa her 100th Happy Birthday song and everyone enjoyed a nice glass of Prosecco as we shared photos, memories and stories from the many times we’ve shared with our wonderful Nonna Rosa.
Given how strong and well she is I’m sure she’ll make it to 101 and likely plenty more!