Pietro Giustra was from Calabria Italy and he came to the US and
worked as a sailor. He married Emilia Scarpati who entered the US
through Ellis Island in 1898 at the age of 17. Emilia was from
Sorrento Napoli. Both were poor and uneducated. My grandfather
Frank was the oldest of five children they raised in Brooklyn,
New York.

At the tender age of 14, my grandfather
Frank became the man of the house when his father Pietro died.
Emilia was forced to work as a seamstress to feed the family.
Frank had to work as well to help his mother and his younger
siblings.

Frank also went to school and was one of
few in his neighborhood to graduate from high school. He then
went on to take college classes without telling his mother.
Hardly anyone in his neighborhood had graduated from college.
When Frank completed college and then graduated from medical
school, it came as a complete surprise to his mother Emilia.

Later, my grandfather Frank married my grandmother
Dorothy and they raised nine children. My mother Mary Lou is the
oldest daughter and the fourth oldest of the children.