Dad’s old friend Severino stopped in for a visit this morning. I didn’t join in to the conversation but it was obvious that they were talking about deeper subjects than the weather and counting off grandchildren. He had a tan that would make George Hamilton jealous and a big genuine smile. Eventually they broke from their private conversation and joined us. He told me that the army was the best thing to best thing to happen to him, he went in weighing a hundred pounds and left weighing one hundred sixty. In other words, it made him healthy. How strange to contrast Severino’s experience with the army with dad’s own experience, or lack thereof. The truth is that dad never served; he left Italy shortly before his mandatory service was to start. But as I’ll explain, Severino was running from things far worse than mandatory service.
Severino worked as an army cook, which definitely played a part in him getting healthy, but it wasn’t just his body that healed, his mind benefited as well. As dad would later tell me, Severino’s father was the textbook definition of “son of a bitch”. Drunk and abusive, he would beat young Severino and put him down constantly. He wouldn’t allow him to attend school either since in his “son of a bitch” opinion, Severino was too stupid to get anything out of it.
Mandatory service allowed Severino to escape his father’s tight grip and he has never looked back. Now retired - from what, I don’t know - he spends much of his time doing volunteer work helping his community…he himself healed; now healing others.
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