Looking back on 2020 I like to think I have learned a lot about who I am, who is important to me, and what I want to do in my life. At some point last year, I decided to dig up and dust off some projects I had been planning on doing one-day. I said to my husband, “If I don’t work on some of these one-day projects now, then when this is over, I should just pitch whatever does not get done.” So, with my daughters turning 28 and 30 this year, I set out to tell the stories of their ancestors as best I could with the information I have collected my entire life.
They may not appreciate these stories yet, but I feel in time they will. Each one of these stories is amazing. For instance, leaving your motherland and family in the 1800’s to embark on a new life, to take a chance at a better life in a country with a foreign language. The story that resonates with me the most is Louis Schippacasse from Italy. As detailed in the Book of Detroiters, when he arrived in NYC he then walked …to Detroit. He walked to Detroit where he knew no one. Where he eventually started a fruit stand, prior to Eastern Market. When he got up to 8 fruit stands he decided it was time for a storefront. He eventually had a large building on the corner of Woodward and Jefferson selling wholesale fruit, pictured above on the right about 1910.
No one’s story in our family has been an easy one. I want these stories to be appreciated, as they all contributed to helping us become who we are today. Rosa Schippacasse would be my girls great-great-grandmother. She had 13 children in 23 years – a feat in itself. Several who did not survive. She also walked after having a baby in NYC after they arrived.
We have all had to learn to be resilient this year more than ever, but when you know your family’s stories and the hardships they endured to get you where you are today, doesn’t it just help to put things in perspective? So, in Rosa’s honor, I wish all the mothers A Very Happy Mother’s Day.
