Slowly the time for my retirement was approaching at R.A.L.A.C. where new breeds from the Lincoln Institute were filling the new vacancies. My son Vince was established himself in the job by now and I was quite happy for him that at last he had a secure job. On 30th May 1985, the staff organized a little goodbye party and I was sent off with a little amount of money and my superannuation. That was the end of my twenty seven years in that job, the best I ever had – ‘Thank you, Australia’

I decided to take a trip after so many years to Italy again to see some of my relatives, the town and my old friends. Tina was not interested in the trip and wanted me to stay to look after the family. So I would have to go by myself. A few months later I was on a plane to Italy and what an experience it was! On the plane I couldn’t rest and my mind was racing back and forth from excited anticipation to melancholic reminiscence. Before we touched down in Rome I took pictures of the city from the plane (a unique opportunity for me) and twenty minutes later we stopped at Ciampino Airport. As soon as I was through customs I went looking for my mate Luigi who now maybe would not recognise me after such a long time. From Australia I wrote to him about my planned trip and gave him the flight arrival details certain he would be waiting for me at the airport. Ten minutes later while I was walking around looking for him, someone came toward me but passed by. Then the two of us turned around to get a better look and we recognised each other then embraced. We had been growing up in different countries, fulfilling all of our young dreams and now we were here again together.

Luigi had a wife and a daughter but they were on holiday on the Adriatic Sea so I missed meeting them. I stayed with him for one day in his home in Rome then the next morning he drove me to the station. After we embraced and said goodbye I was on my way to Sambiase. On the train I started remembering the past and the trips I made on this train, like when I left my home and my mother during the war. Now after thirty five years everything had changed. The trains were now modern and elegant. One thing still hadn’t changed: leaving Roma Terme station going south the train was full of Sicilians who took all the seats.

When I arrived at Lamezia Terme and I alighted on the platform, I hear a well know voice shout “There he is!” It was my sister who had spotted me first. Imagine the profound emotion we felt for one another there and then on that platform; she had been a second mother to me. Maria was also there, her first daughter, her husband Pasquale de Luca, (a different branch of the Deluca family in Australia) and their son Vince.

We went first to Maria’s property at Maricello, close to the beach where two big guard dogs were waiting for us … very scary looking. After tea we drove to Sambiase, to my sister’s house where we relaxed talking of so many things.

The next day I walked about revisiting places that I wanted to see again. So many things had changed; modern buildings were going up now. I took photos everywhere to take back with me to Australia. I went to visit relatives, see old friends. I went at the cemetery to visit my mother’s tomb and other relatives there, and I left full of sorrow and emotion. Others I’d known had died or emigrated and the little town was all changed now.

I went to pay a visit to my wife’s sister Maria, her sons Michael and Eugenio. Eugenio drove me around a few times, and I went for a walk to Caronte’s baths. I took a dip in the warm water and took some more pictures. Eugenio warned me to be careful walking around on my own for fear of kidnapping. Apparently that sort of thing had been happening there but I should not have worried for the word had gone around about me and I was safe. I went to visit my old paternal house which brought back all the old memories of my young life.

One of the family nephews lived there on his own, and was a dragging dependent on his family. He did not even go to visit his sick father in Nicastro hospital who didn’t recognised me when we went to visit him with Eugenio. One day while we were having dinner at Eugenio’s home this nephew came to make trouble, demanding money from me and we had to tell him off.

I went to the beach with Vince my nephew who drove me around on his motor scooter and I had a swim in the clean blue water.

One morning with Gennaro and Rex the dog we went to his property at Priano to pick some figs, and grapes and take some photos.  I went for a walk on Mount St Elia where we had some olive groves which were all abandoned and forgotten now. Up until that day I had never thought to check on what had happened to these properties, I was so busy with my own life in Australia.

About a month went by and I decided to return to Australia because I had seen and done everything I had wanted to in Italy; especially since I wasn’t able to drive a car because they drive on the right side of the road. So I embraced my sister goodbye as well as the others and went with Gennaro to the station. After my long journey by air I was on Australian soil once again.

My brother now had established himself with a big vineyard farm, like he never would have dreamed of owning in Sambiase. His four boys had grown up creating problems that young ones tend to, like not wanting to work on the farm much. His wife Isabella had grown very fat and slowly was loosing her eyesight. She did not last long but she was able to see her boys get married before she died.

A year after Isabella passed away my brother married a Tongan woman for company, but made a choice mistake in that she had never learned how to look after a husband and was useless in the house. Her family from Tonga had sent a nurse to help her. For a few years he kept on with life, but because of his heavy smoking habit his left lung collapsed and died.

Josie married a young man named Angelo Damelio from an Italian family, who was good, honest and hard working. They bought a new house east of the city in Narre Warren and started their life there. They now have two good boys Sam, Nicholas and a pretty baby girl Alyssa.

Carmelina married Fulvio Greco, another Italian descendent from Calabria, near Cosenza, from a widowed mother. Carmelina also went to live near Josie, ten minutes by car from us. Carmelina has a girl Jacinta and a boy Julian and a good husband.

Being close by to us we see each other often and they are going very well.

Before Vince began at R.A.L.A.C. he started work at the Moorabbin Brashes store, bought a car, and went to live in a flat, but was not getting anywhere. So I convinced him to come and try at his luck at R.A.L.A.C. where I was working. He was lucky to get a job there. At the start he did not like it much but later on he went ahead and got involved in the job and he made a name for himself. He met a Swedish girl named Clare and together they went to live in Toorak. They took a holiday in Europe and Italy (but not Sambiase). Later the Government sold the Rehabilitation Centre to a private hospital, and Vince established himself in the internet business. After he broke up with Clare, he met a girl named Amanda who he finally married at the end of 2001. They both live a comfortable happy life in a double storey house in South Caulfield.

Silvana stayed in St Albans with her two boys John and Jason. Her first marriage did not last long for her husband gambled away his income from his small printing business and fell behind paying the house payments, so the bank seized it. Silvana had to rent a house with her two boys her husband went to live with his mother. Silvana got a job in the Real Estate office who managed the house she was renting. Up to this day she is managing all right with her two boys, young men now (and still they are with her). Now fortunately she lives and pays off a house of her own.

When Domenic was older he moved around to different places, and eventually moved in with his very nice British girlfriend Wendy in a flat in St. Kilda. They stayed there for a while as Domenic worked as a deejay in some night clubs or bars. He also started to work with computers at Vince’s house and was very interested in graphic design and the internet. Domenic’s old trade of tattooing he turned into a web site, but like all young ones he is always getting new ideas for jobs. Wendy and Domenic moved once more from their old flat to a newer one still in St. Kilda and they are living there happily now.

So that is the story of my life. I write these memoirs so my children and their children will know a little about the history of their father and grandfather.

—Salvatore Falvo