Those colored locks, which turned the descendants’ hair red, and those very blue eyes, were so different from the phenotype of the rest of the family that they did not go unnoticed. But every doubt has been answered. The truth was brought to light by the tenacity of a woman, Sonia Andretta. After thirty years of research, he first discovered the identity of his grandfather, then introduced his mother Paola Franzin, now eighty years old, to the brothers that the latter didn’t know she had.
The love story
It was a great emotion for Mrs. Franzin, born in 1943, to meet a new and significant part of the family last May 2nd: the sisters Anna and Filomena and the brothers Severino and Gino. Only Fernando, who lives in Canada, was missing. The father himself binds them, Pietro Martelluzzi, now deceased, who during the Second World War had had a relationship in Veneto, in the Cessalto area. From that love story, Paola was born.
They were dark times, and a soldier at the front knew he could meet death before being able to embrace his loved ones again. But fate reserved a better future for Martelluzzi: the man returned to Veroli, in the province of Frosinone, where he came from, and nothing more was heard of him.
The research
It goes without saying that Paola Franzin’s past was for many years shrouded in mystery and the emptiness of the absence of a father. «The soldier was transferred and my mother grew up – says Paola’s daughter, Sonia Andretta –. I learned about this story from my grandmother, I remember it was a summer evening. I wrote down Pietro Martelluzzi’s name and kept it in my diary and promised her that I would find him.” And so it was. «For thirty years I searched through the registers of the Red Cross, among the lists of repatriated, missing and surviving soldiers. I passed them one by one. But I also had adverts published in newspapers in and around Rome, and on social media. I wrote to «There’s mail for you» by Maria De Filippi but to no avail. The elements in my possession are too few.” Last November the turning point: «I subjected my mother to a DNA test, I had heard about this path in an interview. The result, compared with all those in a database, was very similar to that of a girl with origins in the municipality of Veroli. I therefore concentrated all my research on the town of Frusinate, until I found a nephew of Pietro Martelluzzi.”
The meeting
A bolt from the blue for Paola Franzin’s five “new” brothers and their families. But once the initial shock was overcome, the joy of the meeting was immense and mutual. «I recognized myself in their faces – admits Paola Franzin –. When I think that for all these years I have always wondered who I looked like, because in my family there was no one with my facial features! Of course I knew the explanation came from my father’s genes. And today, thanks to the affection of my loved ones, I was able to reunite with my new brothers and thus recompose the puzzle of my life.” The mayor of Cessalto, Emanuele Crosato, also joins in the family’s joy: «Destiny has woven its threads delicately – he states –. And in the kaleidoscope of emotions, the name of Peter, the forgotten father, shines like a star.”
