John Picciuto's Weekly Newsletter of Wrong Advice - Issue #59

Perspective on Loss

Sometime last week I got word that one of my high school teachers had passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. It’s one of those situations where I was unaware of her struggles as we were not necessary close but her loss had a surprising affect on me that I wasn’t prepared for. The oddly poetic reason is not one you would necessarily tie into the loss of another human being, but in this particular case it was primarily due to her introducing me to my favorite film of all time.

Italian class was never a strength for me even with my family background and I was much more focused on making my teacher laugh than actually attempting to learn anything. 6 years of HS AND college Italian classes later and I’m still marginally conversational in the language at best. However poor my Italian skills may have been and continue to be, my high school teacher gave me something I will always cherish and that is my favorite movie of all time.

It was either sophomore or junior year of high school when my then Italian teacher popped Cinema Paradiso into the vhs player and clicked play. If you can remember this far back, movie days were a treat in elementary school or high school. When your teacher wheeled out that vhs/tv combo cart you knew you were in for a good day.

From the moment the film began and the sing song notes of the score from Ennino Morricone began to play, I knew almost instantly I was going to enjoy this movie. The movie was very long for a barely conversational Italian student in his second year so it took us I believe 4 full classes to finally complete the movie. When it was done I was in love. Not just with the movie but the visuals, the language, the country, with all that this film had brought me.

It’s funny, I can honestly say over the last 18 years since I graduated high school I have probably watched Cinema Paradiso at least 20 times (I aim for once a year) and every time I watch that movie I think of that class and that teacher. Life is weird in some ways because the most innocuous occurrences like a high school Italian class can have a long lasting imprint on your life. To this day when I watch the movie I get the same pang of nostalgia and joy as I did back in high school.

People come into and out of your life at all different moments and for different reasons. My high school Italian teacher as hard as she may have tried, did not create a fluent Italian speaker but she did spark my love for film and looking back on it now it’s one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received from her. Death is hard and especially so for a woman not yet old enough to have been ready for the end. I’ll forever have fond memories of her and of our classes as she has given me something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

RIP. Signora Bazzarelli