You wanna talk about mafia? Well, my father was in the mafia. Growing up in Bensonhurst Brooklyn was a rough neighborhood. My father had a little crew. They were his bodyguards and button men. A button man is someone who will kill for you, being that my father was a made man. what’s a made man? did anyone ever see the godfather? my father would delegate to his button men.to make the hit only a made man can delegate . There was a gun in my house, actually, there was a gun in three rooms . I had just married an abusive man not related to the mafia. He used to beat me, but I would never tell my father. One day. I went over the house with my daughter, whowas one years old at the time. it was about 100° outside. I had long sleeves on .my father asked, why are you wearing a long sleeve roll up your sleeve. He saw that my arm was all bruised and black and blue from the wrist to my shoulder. He knew right away. It was my husband. He did not say anything. Silence was not a good thing in the house. It meant trouble, and that trouble was my husband. I knew my father would take care of him, but I did not know how. One thing you have to learn if you’re planning on doing a hit, have to wait. too suspicious to do it right away.. Well, my husband and I split up and I had full custody of my daughter. He never saw my daughter after my father‘s talk. a year later I heard that my husband was dead in the bathroom of his apartment with a needle in his arm, my husband never did drugs. I never questioned my father . Every Sunday night after macaroni dinner, dad would get up put on a suit and go to wherever he had to go. My mother knew what was going on. She also knew he had a girlfriend, they all have girlfriends, but she kept quiet. She was getting everything she needed. The house was beautiful. My mother was uneducated, where was she going to go? She knew her life would be over if she left. my brother and I growing upThought this was completely normal. we used to see dad‘s picture in the paper, we didn’t think anything about it. We would say he did it again. the mafia has different families, Sicilian Naples, Bari Italians. We were the Sicilian mafia. Dad also owned a bar. One night I heard that a man came in the bar and threatened my father. His bodyguard through the man out.the next night. , The man came back.He was cursing at my father, and he saw that he had a gun on-his hip the stranger-was shot in the head and thrown over the train tracks Never to be seen again. Crazy as it sounds I was brought up to not think much about ? What’s that ?the man deserved it although my father never told us, I read it in the newspaper. My father never told us any of his business. When the families went out, we always went to Uncle Louie, or uncle Frank’s. We never bothered with the neighbors. the neighbors did not want to bother with us, but the neighborhood was safe. And safe theyfelt. My father passed away in 1980 of colon cancer.He left my mother before he got sick. When he did die, my mother was sad, but that’s when her life started to live again .we were relieved .we moved to Florida and started all over again without him.this was the happiest days of our lives. It finally was over.