Word: palmira
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ever since her birth in an evil-smelling slum in the Adriatic port of Ancona, life had been hard for Palmira Carloni. After nearly half a century of never-ending work, she still managed to avoid starvation only by selling salted lupine seeds along Ancona's waterfront. Two of the ten children she had borne her deckhand husband died for want of food. But Palmira was strong because she had faith...
...Palmira's faith was in Russia. As a girl of 17 she had heard the exciting news of Russia's October Revolution. She remembers: "We felt it was us." From then on she never wavered. When the Fascists made it a crime to praise anything Soviet, she joined the Communist underground. For 20 years of Fascist rule her hovel was a refuge for Communists fleeing Mussolini's police, but she was never caught. "In my heart of hearts I always looked to Russia," Palmira remembers. "It's been my idea of heaven all these years...
...Glimpse of Heaven. One morning last week as Palmira sat by the waterfront selling her lupines, three ships dropped anchor in Ancona harbor. On two of them, the U.S. destroyers Glennon and George K. MacKenzie, she wasted no attention, but her heart went out to the black, unkempt hull of the third ship. It was the Soviet freighter Dmitry Pozharsky and from its stern flapped a ragged red flag. With tears in her eyes Palmira called out to her eldest daughter, "Look, Roma, it's come." Then the two scurried off through Ancona's alleyways, routing...
...ship Palmira spent her morning's earnings on a bunch of red carnations which she carried like a flag at the head of the procession. Singing, the 500 disheveled women marched through the dockyard gates toward the Dmitry Pozharsky. Police tried to tell them that the Russians would not let them on the ship. "You'll see," laughed Palmira...