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angela de luca was born april 1, 1956 to giovanni and isabella de luca in palermo, a the capital city of sicily. her parents were wealthy merchants, owners of a flourishing foreign carpet importing business, or so angela was always told, and consequently she never wanted for anything growing up, from the simplest necklace she spotted in a shop window to a thoroughbred on her sixth birthday. she was truly the apple of her father's eye and she knew that she had him wrapped around her impossibly tiny finger from a very young age. never hesistating to ask for what she wanted, angela's parents lavished outlandish gifts and affection upon their only child. she was spoiled, no way around it, and she began to develop a reputation in town for being quite the diva. by the time she turned 18 she had already worked her way through a dozen suitors and her father was beginning to worry that his pride and joy might end up a spinster. he began introducing her to a neverending line of men from his "shop" and as angela went out with each of them she began to piece together her father's real business. all of her life she'd truly believed that her father's mass wealth came from his little carpet business, but now she realized that the carpet business was just a clever ruse. giovanni was one of the most powerful bosses of the casa nostra at the time. though she was surprised by revalation, it didn't take angela long to realize that her father's position only meant more power. little did she know that this power would be spreading to the united states, much to her displeasure, very soon.
her father announced that the family would be relocating overseas the week of her 21st birthday. angela was furious and for the first time her father put her in her right place. she was told, quite bluntly, to shut up. if she'd been more agreeable to the suitors that had come her way she might have been allowed to stay in sicily with a potential future husband. however, her father told her, she'd snubbed her nose at all of them like the spoiled brat she was and no she had no choice but to come with them to america or risk disgracing herself and the family. tearfully, she packed her bags. her first few years in the states were the most difficult. angela had never spent much time actually focusing in school and consequently she had never picked up english like many of her fellow classmates had, and now, thrust into a land where very few people spoke her language she found herself struggling to communicate. the burden of learning a new language humbled angela. she was no longer the spoiled child she had been in sicily and though she still had an apetite for the finer things in life, she no longer acted as though she deserved them. it was a blessing in disguise when she was introduced to sergio parisi, an italian born immigrant who was a powerful business partner of a friend of angela's father. and angela realized, as he introduced himself to her in italian, that for the first time in her life she wanted to be in love. there's was a whirlwind romance and before she knew it, she was walking down the aisle in an extravagant dress her mother had ordered from the homeland. life was perfect.
angela settled willingly, much to her parent's surprise, into the role of the dutiful wife. and for a short time after returning from their year long honeymoon in italy the couple seemed absolutely untouchable. they never argued, never even quarelled over the grocery list. but within a few months it became clear that angela was tired of the city life. she wanted sergio to herself, someplace far from the city, someplace where they would be able to raise a family together. the couple began to argue more and more often over the subject of relocation and angela began to fear that they would never reach an agreement. but finally, following the death of his mentor, sergio relented to his wife's wishes and the couple moved from new york to the small suburb of bayview. once again, things were blissful. sergio opened his first restaurant and angela returned to being the happy housewife. a little over a year after moving from the city, angela returned from a doctor's visit with wonderful news, news that she could barely wait to tell her husband. the minutes seemed to crawl by as she waited for him to return from work, and when the door finally opened she flew down the stairs to greet him and share what she'd learned. she was expecting. the couple was ecstatic. nine months later, they welcomed little rosanna to the world. she was followed respectively by graciela, and teall. as the daughters kept coming angela became more and more aware of her husband's desire for a son and consequently she felt increasingly inadequate. it was a few months later, when she was positive she'd had the last of her children, that she became pregnant once more. she felt differently about this child, and though she didn't say so to her husband for fear she might be wrong, she was positive that the baby would be a boy. lo and behold, at last her son was born. the family was absolutely complete.
though in her younger days the idea of being a devoted mother might have seemed absolutely out of the question, as soon as her first daughter was born her children became her entire life. she lavished affection upon them just as her parents had lavished on her, and though she was known to discipline from time to time, she generally left the punishing to her husband. and now, her children are almost all grown and she's turned her attention once more to her husband, the only man she has eyes for, and looks to the future eagerly. for a girl who once feared aging, she's excited now to grow old with sergio by her side.
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