Nana

I grew up in a large Italian family and every Christmas we would have homemade macaroni. My grandparents would make many pounds of it leading up to the holiday and now that my grandmother has passed, we are continuing the tradition.

I definitely know how blessed I am to be celebrating my Nana's 103rd birthday with her today. She is truly amazing and I would love to share some interesting things about her on her special day.

My Grandmother has lived almost all of her 85-years here in the Capital Region. Throughout the Growing Up 518 video series, she has told us so many stories of going to school, meeting my Grandfather, getting married, their first apartment, house, the birth of their kids and raising a family.

Imagine growing up locally during the Great Depression; segregation; when the Capital Region was mainly farmland and 5 & 10 stores. My Nana, who turns 85 officially on May 10th has lived here almost her entire life. Growing up, meeting her husband, raising a family of 4-children and so on, it all happened here.

How do you surprise someone that is the front person for your entire family? She knows everything that's going on! Even the stuff you probably don't want her to know. She is Nana.

Imagine Clifton Park with farms and woods; no traffic, no mall or stores, no restaurants, just families and trees. It's so hard to envision. I can remember little bits in the 1980's but even then it was nothing compared to when my grandmother was raising her family in the 50s/60s/70s. Nana was born in South Troy and almost all of her life has been spent right here in the Capital Region. In this ep

My soon to be 85 year old Nana has loved opening up and telling me all of her stories from growing up and raising a family here in the Capital Region. In the series so far we've heard about Nana's childhood during the Great Depression, meeting the love of her life (my Grandfather), how they survived a long distance relationship while he was in the service, getting married and even having baby numb

Nana calls me her "sunshine." If the sun is out, she says it's my doing. If it's not out, she asks, "Why didn't you bring the sunshine!?" She's your typical feisty, spunky, great sense of humor Grandmother and I'm so proud to call her mine.

In Growing Up 518, we've been following the story of my 84-year old Nana. She's spent almost all of her life right here in the Capital Region and in this series she's been sharing her stories of how it once was locally.

In Growing Up 518, we've been following the story of my 84-year old Nana. She's spent almost all of her life right here in the Capital Region and in this series she's been sharing her stories of how it once was locally. In episode 7, after marrying my Grandfather, they moved onto the army base

Growing up 518 has been a treat to film with my 84-year old Nana. Going through her life growing up here in the Capital Region and how different things were back then. As we enter episode 6, we've gotten to when my Grandfather

My Nana was born in 1932 and grew up in South Troy. She has lived the majority of her life within the Capital Region and made many beautiful memories here, including meeting her husband and raising her family.