Proust Questionnaire: Claire's answers

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On Thu, 25 Aug 16 02:15:34 UTC Claire (32) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: Being forced to marry someone I don't love.
Where would you like to live?: My hometown, Martone, in Calabria, Italy; my world is there.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: To be amongst my children and my flowers, and within walking distance of my family.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: Swearing in Italian
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Fiction? It was thought wasteful to educate girls when I was young. I can read, but not well.
Who are your favorite characters in history?: St. George, St. Anthony, Mussolini
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: My mother, she lost her husband, kept her family together and put one of her sons through school to become a professor.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: Again with the fiction. I like Lucille Ball--she makes me laugh.
Your favorite painter?: Michelangelo, the painter of the Sistine Chapel...I saw his paintings once when I took my children to Rome.
Your favorite musician?: Anything they play on the Italian music stations that reminds me of home. I don't know who the musicians are--I just like the music.
The quality you most admire in a man?: I like hardworking men, life does not forgive laziness.
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Sense of humor and the ability to talk, on the phone, through letters, in person--I like to feel connected.
Your favorite virtue?: Not patience, I've lost that. Diligence. Things need to get done, inside and out of the home. Season by season.
Your favorite occupation?: Gardening. I love making the flowers grow...a little ginger ale works wonders.
Who would you have liked to be?: Educated, maybe a midwife like my sister-in-law, or a nun, no one could abuse me then.
Your most marked characteristic?: I like to make people smile--I'll sing country songs or tell jokes just to get someone to laugh.
What do you most value in your friends?: Communication. We're not in walking distance and can only visit on the weekends because the men have the car for work. I'd feel so isolated without a telephone.
What is your principle defect?: I once had a breakdown--postpartum they called it--and was hospitalized; I feel so ashamed even when people don't bring it up and mutter names under their breath.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: To be cutoff from my immediate family.
What would you like to be?: A working mother. I'd like my own income. I can't work & take care of my family, I wish I could. I tried working in the factory shops in New York, it's all I could get without speaking English, but never again. I'd rather penny pinch & live off the land.
What is your favorite color?: White and red, like my roses, but especially yellow.
What is your favorite flower?: Roses when we had our apartment and canna lilies at our house now, they wouldn't grow at the apartment. Shallow soil.
What is your favorite bird?: I love them all, especially canaries.
Who are your favorite prose writers?: We never had enough money for books growing up.
Who are your favorite poets?: The only poets I know are the authors of the Bible.
Who are your heroes in real life?: Aunt Mary, she was kind to me when I came to America and took us in. She never found faults in people.
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: I wish I knew enough history to provide a name.
What are your favorite names?: Angela, Anthony, and George--religious names; not Marcy, I can't say that name, sounds like Madison...where do you get these American names...
What is it you most dislike?: Drinking and gambling. I hate when people get drunk, abusive and reckless, and waste the money I've struggled to save.
What historical figures do you most despise?: The Mafia
What event in military history do you most admire?: When Mussolini did something about the Mafia--they would steal from the poor and try to intimidate us. We lived in fear.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: Song, I love to sing.
How would you like to die?: Unafraid, surrounded by my family, and buried with the rosaries I handmade when I was sixteen.
What is your present state of mind?: Tired.
What is your motto?: Bella Mia! Well, it's not so much of a motto, but my greeting. Anything for a smile.

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