Language Story 2

I can’t really recall when I fell in love with books and reading, but I do remember when I feel in love with stories. My mother is a great storyteller. I don’t know that she really knows the impact she has had on my life because of her great skill in storytelling. I remember getting into bed with her in the early hours of the morning, when I was just a little girl, after my father left for work. My mother was a stay-at-home mom and she and I had lots of together time, as I was her only child. I remember nestling into her arms and holding my warm milk bottle in one hand while caressing the silk nightgown she wore with the other and closing my eyes and envisioning the stories that my mother would tell.

I will always cherish the many times I asked her to retell the story of Hansel and Gretel. She didn’t call them that in Italian, but later I discovered that the story she told me about the children in the forest was indeed that of Hansel and Gretel. My mother told stories with such conviction that it was never too difficult to create images in my mind of the people and the places she described. I could listen to her for hours. I loved the sound of her voice and the sparkle in her eyes as she recounted the stories of her childhood. She brought everything to life and I was so excited to be around her, because she was able to transport me to new and interesting places, without even leaving the safety and the warmth of her bed.

As I got older, my mother read stories to me from her books and articles from her magazines, at any opportunity she could. She, too, treasured the time we spend in storytelling. When I was in university and too busy to sit and listen to her read, she would lament the fact that she and I didn’t have quality time anymore. To her, quality time meant story time.

When my children were born, she became re-energized. Her talent for telling stories was revived and she grew excited at the prospect of babysitting, so that she could put on her storytelling hat and become the magician that took my children to wonderful places and allowed them to image beautiful unicorns and princes and princesses. Her stories continue today…at the young age of 86, she is the ultimate storyteller and her stories will live on years after she is gone, because she has had the wisdom and the gift to be able to turn simple words into awesome stories that my children and I will forever cherish.