Anastasia "Annie" Beltrami Favagrossa
My Grandmother Annie was born Anastasia Beltrami in 1909 in the Commune of Marmentino in the Lomardy Region of the Northern Italian Alps.
As the 10th child of 11 brothers and sisters, she and her younger brother were the "babies" of the family and were probably a little spoiled, even in the difficult rural and agricultural life the family faced.
She left school after the sixth year to work with family, but was able to attend night school and earn her basic diploma.
She met Bob Beltrami, a returned Marmentino native, who was visiting from California. He had emigrated to California after the World War in which he had served and had been an Austrian prisoner of war for almost 2 years. Bob was a naturalized American citizen and had been in California since 1921.
Bob was looking for a wife to take back to San Francisco. He courted Annie's best friend, but her mother refused to allow her to go to America. So Anastasia and Bob were married in 1933, went to Rome with a group of newly weds for an audience with Pope Pius XI and left by steamer for America.
On that 3-week voyage and honeymoon, my father Albert was conceived. He was born in Sacramento the following February in 1934.
Later that year, the family moved south from Sacramento to Modesto in the Central Valley, where Annie would reside until 1993. For many years, they were partners in an Italian cafe called the Farmers Inn. In 1951, Bob built and operated his own restaurant, the Lone Palm Cafe until his retirement in 1958. He died in 1962.
Now may be the time to explain what happened to Anastasia. After her arrival in 1933 in Sacramento, where she knew no English and was in a totally strange and foreign environment from her village in the Alps, new friends and acquaintances took her in hand, had her name changed from Anastasia to Annie and had her long reddish tinted hair cut into the bob style of the 30's. My grandfather was not amused.
In 1965, Annie married Jack Favagrossa in Modesto and they lived there until his death in 1985. I have so many wonderful, warm memories from this time. Stirring rice was a magical experience in Noni's kitchen as her risotto with saffron burst with color. There were always biscotti in the cookie jar. Almonds from the tree out back, oven-toasted on cookie trays, were a special treat. Her recipes, all from memory and using vegetables grown in the yard, made a finicky boy appreciate frittata and homemade soup.
In 1993, she relocated to Ukiah to be near her son and family, moving into the Brookside Retirement Facility. Needing more care, she moved to Dalistan Care Home on Scott Street in 2004. She died in her sleep of natural causes on September 28, 2008.
Annie Beltrami Favagrossa loved life and people. She was an active church member, being a member of St. Stanislaus parish and St. Joseph parish in Modesto, and a member of St. Mary of the Angels parish in Ukiah.
She was the last surviving charter member of Italian Catholic Federation Chapter 48 in Modesto, which she helped establish in 1937.
She leaves her son Albert and his wife, Patricia, as well as granddaughter Katy and myself and my wife Tricia. She leaves many nieces and nephews in the Piedmont and Lombardy regions of Italy.
She lived a long, sometimes difficult and always challenging, life. She battled permanent shingles for her last 15 years. But she loved family and friends and her faith. She was proud to be a US citizen since her naturalization in 1938 and voted in every election. But was also proud of her Italian ancestry.
God Bless Her.
