The timing of this article for the May issue is interesting, because I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my mom Dora. She was an amazing woman. I know nearly everyone says that, but really, she was.

Italy was in bad shape after World War II when my grandfather Umberto Romeo decided to come to America to find work. My mom was a young girl when her father left their home in Monte di Procida, so he could lay the foundation for a better life for his family. By the time Dora was a teenager, she, her three sisters, one brother and my grandmother Maria had reunited and settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. By that time, their pizzeria on Fifth Avenue was up and running.