Grandmother interview Part 2: Nina Bentley

This is part 2 of my three part series on my grandmother interviews. This one is focusing on the story of Nina Bentley.

My grandmother told me how, growing up her father was an undereducated italian stowaway. He married a younger woman who decided to work to support her carpenter husband. She describes how she used to cross streets to avoid walking by her parents, as she was ashamed of her parents non-traditional family structure. "All I wanted" she described, "was to be a part of a traditional family."

My grandmother told me how, when she met my grandfather, he was the perfect thing for her. She said that he was an army man, and a smart international relations guy.

My grandmother told me how she loved her husband, and wanted to support him in any way possible. He wanted a traditional wife, which was all she wanted to be. "We were well-fitted" she said. She became an artist and a mother, trying to raise her kids to be the best people possible. These two things dominated her life for a long time, and when she moved to Zurich she became part of the expat mothers community that dominated social life.

My grandmother told me how that both the expat community and the community in Great-neck where they had lived before required something of her, they needed her to be the perfect housewife. "I had to lay the perfect table, bake the perfect roasts, etc." She was happy to do it as well, because as she said "I wanted to be traditional".