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beautiful Mary was as she came into the hall. He had rented a wedding dress for her from the general store, probably the only such dress in town, but her beautiful black hair streaming down her back and her dark brown eyes shining out from under the veil made him catch his breath. He was so happy to be married to her. He didn’t know, however, until after they were married, how much she had to sacrifice. He hadn’t known her father had told her that if she married someone outside their faith, and who was not Italian, he would disown her. He hadn’t known because she didn’t tell him. But about six months after they were married, he came home to find her crying. The open letter by her side told him something was wrong with her family, but he couldn’t read at all, nor could he understand Italian. At first, she wouldn’t tell him what the letter said, but he had finally coaxed it out of her. It made him angry - not at her, but at her family. But, as time went on, he began to understand them more through her. They had been a close, loving family, and they felt as though she had turned against them. Mary continued to write home, though the letters from home had quit coming. Jim kept encouraging her. Then one day, about five years after they were married, a letter came. It was from her mother. She said Mary’s father was softening, and, perhaps, someday, they could see each other again. Mary continued to write, and so did her mother. Mary and Jim had wanted to have children almost immediately. But children did not come. Not long after 57