Dominic F. Gangale
2023
LOVE REKINDLES A PASSION FOR WRITING
The year was 1960, my father and I stepped off the ‘Olympia’ ocean liner on the docks of the city of New York. Our next stop would be Cleveland, which would become our new residence.
I was eleven years old. According to the legends of American greatness, the streets in American were paved with gold. And life of an American family was a life of leisure and abundance: a life of easy living.
But America was not a land for the timid or the weak. It was a land of hungry entrepreneurs and aggressive individuals.
Upon arrival, many nights I would ask Dad if we could just go back to our small village in Italy.
The balance of our family arrived one year later. For seven kids and two adults, life was difficult. The first few years were turbulent. As if things weren’t hard enough, the kids made life very difficult for Mom and Dad. Our parents were young immigrants who carried with them the virtues of hard work and respect.
We young adolescents, quickly adapted to the changes. We had one simple request: why couldn’t we be like a normal American family?
While I was attending high school, my parents preached of the merits of finding a nice Italian girl. Italians should stick together with our own kind, they contended.
On the other hand, I fell in love with a gorgeous blue-eyed blond, we had a marvelous life. We shared all of life’s pleasures and disappointments. America did provide the abundance of wealth that she had promised, but then, wonderful things seem to happen when hard work is involved.
On June 8, 2019, I was left devastated. I began writing daily letters to my deceased wife: that was my limit of interaction with society, I could do nothing else. The daily letters were transformed into a book, The Greater the Love, the Deeper the Grieving, and my writing began. My granddaughter’s college writing inspired me to retrieve the dormant draft of Love Me Silently, a romantic novel of young love.
Sincerely.
Dominic F. Gangale
The Greater the Love the Deeper the Grieving
The Greater the Love, The Deeper the Grieving, centers on one man’s heart wrenching and grievous journey upon the sudden traumatic death of his high school sweetheart. The shocking loss transports this husband into a state of deep emotional turmoil and depression. Incapable of speaking of her or what lies ahead, his life is reduced to writing. For months he only writes to his lost wife. From his gut-drenching letters to his wife, we are drawn to the inflictions of devastating emotional and physical suffering. His poetry and letters point us to the depths of his love. From his acknowledgements of regrets and shortcomings, he seeks guidance from his Almighty God. Against the backdrop of a full and blessed life with his one and only love of 50 plus years, his life is instantly shattered after losing the most important person in his life. He is now left with facing life without the person who had always stood by his side.
In this short memoir, Dominic chronicles how this journey, his journey – has been and continues to be - more treacherous and more challenging than any other element in his life.
Love Me Silently
At the pinnacle of his life, when happiness and contentment circled every element of his life, Vincent Mancini's whole world was suddenly turned upside down by the reemergence of innocent youthful, long-lost love.
The unexpected re-appearance of his high school sweetheart forces Vincent to re-examine his life.
From humble and meager beginnings as a young Italian immigrant, to becoming an accomplished, successful citizen, life was pleasurable and straightforward until he was blindsided by his old love.
How does he resolve the contradiction of his desire to rekindle his lost love, with feelings of betraying his longstanding, happy relationship with his devoted loving wife and family?
See what happens when his two worlds collide. Walk with Vincent, as he struggles to navigate his emotional roller-coaster ride between desire and faithfulness.
Broken Promises
Broken promises. Who would have envisioned how significant those words would become to the lives of Jennifer Reed and Vincent Mancini?
Passion drives the life of Vincent Mancini and Norman Johnson, a pair of two entirely different people with wildly conflicting goals in mind. These two conflicting forces are hurling towards a collision course of consequences that no one could have possibly foreseen: Everlasting love, versus vengeance. Who would prevail in the long battle?
For two long awaited years, the lives of Vincent and Jennifer have continued to exist in their separate and distinct journeys. Life-altering decisions, long overdue, must finally be made. At times life presents itself with resolutions that forever modify your existence. Suddenly, people are forced to acknowledge just how intertwined their destinies are.
While love and normalcy seem to be the clear objective, how will our characters finally reach a destination, a culmination of a very convoluted journey?