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Continuing with our translation of Ottilia Genetti Zambotti’s notebook, here is a very sweet story composed by Tillie in March of 1902, as transcribed by our friend Loretta Cologna.
(left page, continued on right page)
While Maria was walking with her father along the main street of the town one day, she watched many valuable things in the jewelers’ shop windows; so she said to her father: In some months it will be Mum’s name day and as I have saved a little treasure in my money box I can buy her a nice gift.
Dear father, as you have great taste, you can give me some advice about my choice because I want to give Mum something that she may like.
My daughter – her father said – the most precious gifts that a girl can offer her mother are not jewels but obedience, hard work and study.
Following these truths Maria started to study with a double zeal, she got a notebook and wrote all the good advice and the lessons she received at school. On the last page her teacher registered the good marks and the praises that the young girl deserved throughout the school year.
On the desired day, beaming with joy, Maria gave her mother the notebook together with a little plant of jasmine that she had grown herself.
Do you think there is a better gift for a mother?
Castelfondo, 1 March 1902
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The Genetti Family Genealogy Project 