On Sunday, the Cangialosis of Spring Hill renewed vows they first made in New York City while the '20s were still roaring.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published March 22, 2004
[Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark]
The Rev. Roland Desjardins speaks with Jean Cangiolosi as her husband Carmelo looks on during the Sunday Mass at St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church. The couple were celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary, which is today.
SPRING HILL - The "Roaring '20s" ushered in the Harlem Renaissance and a pact between the United States and Canada to preserve the Niagara Falls.
It also brought to American shores thousands of Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and Greek immigrants, who fled famine and persecution in their homelands. It brought the crash of the stock market on Oct. 29, 1929; the Great Depression followed.
Despite the tumult, this period of uncertainty and change brought Carmelo Cangialosi and Jean Buttatavoli together. They were married on March 22, 1929.
Now both 93, the bond which was sparked decades before platinum was universally recognized as 75 years of marriage, was reaffirmed.
On Sunday, the Cangialosis of Spring Hill renewed their wedding vows in front of parishioners at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Spring Hill. Their anniversary is today.
Mr. Cangialosi stood facing the altar, and with his hands clasped in front of him, said: "I do."
Mrs. Cangialosi, seated in her wheelchair at arm's reach from her husband, responded in a similar fashion. The congregation applauded.
The love affair began in New York.
She was a seamstress, who as a little girl sang in the old, St. Patrick's Cathedral at Prince and Mott streets in Lower Manhattan.
He toiled underground in the subway as a motorman for the New York City Transit Authority. Back then, the fare was just a nickel.
"She saw him on the corner and said, "That is the man I want to be with,' " said the couple's only child, Marie Sicari, also of Spring Hill. "And that was that."
Well, not exactly.
After eloping, their parents concocted a plan to keep them apart. They were simply too young, Sicari said.
Mrs. Cangialosi was placed in a home, but as testament to their bond, their love was not undone.
The couple later reunited and were married in the church.
"The warden of the agency was the maid of honor," said Sicari, who was borne to her parents nine months later.
The couple have three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
Nearly three-quarters of a century after the Great Depression and after more wars than they care to count, the couple endured the daily struggles only both of them know, acknowledged the Rev. John Blum during Mass on Sunday.
"This is very special," Sicari said. "They had their hard times, but they raised themselves to where they are now."
Together.
"Wow, we made it," Mr. Cangialosi said.
Mrs. Cangialosi smiled.
- Duane Bourne can be reached at 352 754-6114. Send e-mail to dbourne@sptimes.com
