There Has to Be More
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S. Dolores Gartanutti
Sister Dolores Gartanutti,O.P. affectionately known as DEE to the youth she lived with for 22 years, is an Amityville Dominican from the New York area. Before founding Noah's Ark Dee taught 25 years in NY and in Puerto Rico-Dee has her Master's in Education. In 1977 she founded Noah's Ark to respond to the needs of runaway and homeless youngsters in the New York area. During the ensuing years she lived with over 1400 youngsters, and it is some of their stories that she shares in her book.
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There Has to Be More - S. Dolores Gartanutti
Contents
Preface
INTRODUCTION
Following My Passion
CHAPTER 1
A Simple Beginning
CHAPTER 2
A Nice Place To Visit
CHAPTER 3
A Redhead I Dearly Loved
CHAPTER 4
I Wish I Were A Dog
CHAPTER 5
Help Me Light the Stove
CHAPTER 6
My Jewish Star
CHAPTER 7
Mary Brought Her Home
CHAPTER 8
Turnabout In A Snow Storm
CHAPTER 9
One Drink and All Hell Breaks Loose
CHAPTER 10
The Men In My Life
CHAPTER 11
Na Mas Te
CHAPTER 12
Beauty Within
CHAPTER 13
From The Land Downunder
CHAPTER 14
Vacations
CHAPTER 15
Hit Him in The Head With A Wooden Spoon
CHAPTER 16
From The Andes To New York City
CHAPTER 17
A Tribe Arrives
CHAPTER 18
Castaways On The Van Wyck Expressway
CHAPTER 19
Little Evan Arrives
CHAPTER 20
My Karate Expert
CHAPTER 22
Eastern Stars
CHAPTER 22
Younger Runaways
CHAPTER 23
The Holidays
CHAPTER 24
Angels To The Ark
We are guilty of many errors and many faults,
but our worst crime is abandoning the children,
neglecting the fountain of life.
Many of the things we need can wait.
The child cannot.
Right now is the time
bones are being formed, blood is being made,
senses are being developed.
To the child we cannot answer Tomorrow.
The child’s name is Today.
-Gabriela Mistral
Nobel Prize-winning poet from Chile
Preface
I STRUGGLED FOR QUITE A while with titling this book. At first, I thought of The Many Faces Of God
because my youngsters have been that for me. But, eventually, I knew that the title could only be: There has to be more…
It was that seeking for the more
that allowed these youngsters to leave all behind and have the courage to seek the more.
Many years ago our ancestors left their homelands to make their way to America. They left everything familiar behind, crossed an ocean, and came to a strange land. I liken my youngsters to these brave travelers.
It is to honor my youngsters that I write this book, for it is basically their stories. I have changed names but everything to follow is true. May their stories inspire others who may be living in difficult circumstances to know there is more out there; to never give up, to never give in to drugs and alcohol, to never settle for anything less than it is their heritage to have.
As stated in our Declaration of Independence, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I also hope it may inspire others who have been more fortunate to dedicate their lives to helping these young people in need to find the more.
I wish to thank, especially, Alice Armao who really helped kick start this undertaking, Linda Gilberg who typed the manuscript, and Maureen and John Raber for their proof-reading and editing expertise.
Sister Dolores Gartanutti, O.P.
INTRODUCTION
Following My Passion
ONE THING I KNEW, EVEN at a very early age, was that I am a person of passion. Whatever I love, I love totally. I have never been good at the moderation thing. At four years old, my Uncle Danny introduced me to baseball. How exciting it was to root for Dem Bums
as the Dodgers of Brooklyn were so affectionately called. Exciting, but, oh, so frustrating at times. Every year the wins would be anticipated, the dreams shattered, and always springing anew was the cry, Wait till next year.
I attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Elementary School in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. I started school in January 1942, about six weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II. In fact, the bombing was one of my earliest memories. My family was celebrating my Uncle Danny’s birthday. It was a Sunday afternoon. We had just finished dinner and the table was being cleared so that coffee and the birthday cake could be served. I remember the radio was in the far corner of the room. Someone said, Hey, everyone pipe down, they are playing ‘Amapola,’ Uncle Danny’s favorite song.
All of a sudden, the radio blared across the room: We interrupt this broadcast to announce that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor.
The whole family went out of the house and neighbors, too, were filing into the street. The boy who lived across the street was a sailor stationed on a ship in Pearl Harbor. His mother was sobbing and I remember my mother putting her arms around the woman. I soon learned, sadly, what it meant when a little flag with a gold star appeared in a window of a house.
Love of country and a passion to know more about history became earmarks of my childhood. I had a map of the world on my bedroom wall and I would mark places like Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor and then move over to Europe to find Poland, Russia, and France. I grew up appreciating the sacrifices others were making so that I could be free. There was also that sense of what others have done for me and what I owe to those who will come after me.
My father spent part of his early years in an orphanage. His mother and father had emigrated from Italy to the United States. My father’s family was wealthy and from Venice. My paternal grandfather was a college student studying engineering on maneuvers with the equivalent to our National Guard. These maneuvers took place in the hills to the South of Venice. That was where he met my grandmother, the peasant daughter of the innkeeper where the young soldiers were quartered. They fell in love and much to the dismay of his family, they married.
Not long after, my father was born. Two years later he had a little sister. My grandmother was never accepted by my grandfather’s family because she was considered so far below their social standing. My grandfather graduated and was an engineer with a specialty in railroad construction. He was