Quando hai la nonna inglese

Rosemary put the phone down and let out a sigh. Her son Fabio had rung to ask her to babysit for Leonardo her grandson. Of course she'd said she'd be delighted to, she loved being with him. 
Then almost as an after thought Fabio had warned her not to bring any presents for Leo, he said they had a house full of stuff and couldn't cope with anymore.
  Then in a kinder voice he'd told her that Leo loved her and didn't need presents to want to be with her.
The tears that were never far away since her husband Beppe had passed on trickled down her cheeks.
 She knew her son was right. She and Beppe had been very careful not to spoil Fabio and teach him good values about money. It probably seemed to Fabio and his wife that she was trying to buy Leo's affection.
Rosemary giggled to herself remembering something Leo had said when he was about four. They had been in the supermarket and she'd picked up a toy to buy him. He'd looked up at her in awe.
'You're rich aren't you Nonna. You're always buying presents?'
Rosemary had tried to choose her words carefully.
'Oh Leo you mustn't ever say whether someone is rich, or poor. These things are personal.'
Leo had been quiet for a moment and then asked, 'What's personal?'
Rosemary had answered that it meant something that only you should know about. Leo had immediately replied, 'Like going to the toilet.'

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Rosemary pulled up a chair next to her grandson and peered over his shoulder at his exercise book. She had made them both a cup of tea, hers with milk and his with lemon the Italian way and placed it at a safe distance from his book. He had been swinging on the chair and playing around with his pencils, sharpening them all and scattering the  shavings all over the table.

'What are you doing  Leo? Can I help you?'

'No Nonna of course not, it's too difficult for you, you're old. I'm doing maths, anyway, multiplications.'

'That was my favourite at primary school, I was really good, top of the class.'

Rosemary sipped her tea and helped herself to a biscuit.

'Come on, give me one to do.'

'Ok Nonna, eight times nine'

'72, that's how old I am. You're eight so that means I'm nine times older than you.' She laughed joyfully remembering what fun it had seemed to chant the tables.

'Just think Leo we had to learn twelve tables because our money was very complicated then.'

 Leonardo put down his pencil and turned to look at her.

'Twelve? What sort of money did you have?' He took a gulp of his tea and swallowed a whole chocolate biscuit and leant back in his chair.


'We had Pounds, shillings and pence. the symbol used for them was £ S D, or L S D. It stood for Librae Solidi Denari, they're Latin words.'

 Leo was gazing at her wide eyed. She smiled at him and carried on.

'The plural of penny was pence. There were twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound. There were lots of different coins. A penny, a threepenny bit, a shilling, half a crown, and then the notes but I didn't have much to do with them, they were for the grown ups.'

 Rosemary carefully wrote it all down on a piece of paper so it was clear forLeo to understand..

'  My parents, who would be your great grandparents even had farthings, crowns, florins and guineas.  They had lots of slang names too. I was fascinated by the way your great-grandfather talked about money. He called a shilling a bob, a pound a quid, and a sixpence a tanner.
 I used to catch the bus to school and my mother would give me two penny coins. They were made of copper and sometimes I'd put them in a saucer of vinegar the night before and in the morning they'd be all shiny.'

 Rosemary stopped and closed her eyes. She remembered all those times at the bus stop, all her friends and cousins that shared the journey with her. A sadness came over her.

'Oh Nonna can we do that ! Please!'

Rosemary took some small coins from her purse and they went to the kitchen and put them in a saucer and covered them with vinegar. For a moment she was back with her mother.

'Go on Nonna, tell me more '  Leo tugged at her sleeve. His face was lit up and his dimple showed as he smiled at her.  Rosemary looked at his dear face and her heart swelled with love.

 ' My favourite coin was a silver sixpence. I felt as rich as can be when I had one of those. There was a little shop near our school that looked just like a bungalow from outside but when you walked in the door there was a huge display of sweets. They must have sold other things but all I remember is the sweets.  Most of them cost a penny and had names like Flying saucers and shrimps, sherbert fountains that cost threepence, oh but with a sixpence you could have a whole bar of chocolate.'

Leo took another biscuit, 'Mmmm' he said,

 'I love chocolate. I'd like to try a flying saucer and a sherbert fountain.'
'Next time we go to Britain we'll see if they still sell them',  Rosemary tossled his thick dark curls.

' But  Nonna the money sounds very complicated, no wonder they changed it.'  Leo took another biscuit, squashing it in his mouth in one go.

'It was in 1971,'  Rosemary had a dreamy look.' Lots of things happened then, I met Nonno Beppe and within two weeks I knew I wanted to marry him. he was so handsome and funny and kind, and now here you are.'

 Leo rolled his eyes. 'Tell me more about your old money Nonna. How did you add it all up.?'

'Well we had to know our tables like I said. It was fun. Every morning we would chant the tables, a bit like one of your rapper songs. Let's try it shall we?  We'll start with the twelve times table you'll see how easy it is. It's got a pattern. Once twelve is twelve, two twelves are twenty-four.'

 Rosemary started tapping a rhythm on the table with a ruler.

 Leo laughed and joined in.  Rosemary stood up and started swaying and clicking her fingers as she chanted the tables.

'So  Leo  if there are twelve pence to one shilling then how many pence will there be in ten shillings?'

'Easy' cried Leo and imitating a rappers voice chanted 'twelve times ten is one hundred and twenty.'

The  door opened and  Federica and Fabio came in. They smiled at the scene and Fabio winked at her.

 ' Hey what are you two up to ? It looks more like a break dance lesson than homework, and what's that smell of vinegar?'

 Leo ran to his mother and hugged her.

'Come and join us mamma e papà, we' ve put some coins in some vinegar to make them go shiny. Come on let's hear you say your tables like Nonna.'

Federica span her son round and the two of them started off with the tables, going all the way through to twelve. Fabio came close and whispered.


'I'm sorry about what I said, about the presents, but you and papa taught me so much about money, about how it's what you do with it that matters and to have fun for free,'

She laughed and hugged him and shoved him off to join his wife and son.

Rosemary watched them spin round together laughing.
 She thought of her friends and cousins that had shared her childhood days with her. She had lost touch with them or they were no longer here. She thought of how life had taken her so far away from where she had started.
 All those precious memories were in her heart and part of the rich mosaic of her life. She held them all close to her heart, all the love for the ones she no longer saw and all the love for those that were with her now. She looked at Leo, he held his head and walked just like her dear Beppe. the same masculine nonchalant easygoing movements, it filled her with joy and she felt the love of the years flow through her.
Rosemary decided that she would find out about putting money away for Leo for when he was older. That would be better for him than all the presents.