"Love One Another"
[John 13:34]
Teresa Tedesco biography – The celebration of a 90 year old life
Teresa Hand was born in Bellsill Scotland in 1921, the 4th child of James and Elizabeth Hand, with two older brothers, James and Thomas and a sister Maureen. They moved to Ireland to live on the farm with her father's parents where Jack was born and baby Maureen died from pneumonia at age 2. In 1927 they came to America in hopes of a better life because there was not enough work in Ireland. Her father's brother Jack helped the family by paying passage to come to America because he had money as a bootlegger. They lived in West New York, New Jersey above a German bakery where she befriended the owner's daughter who didn't speak English, so she learned some German. Language was never a barrier even at a young age she always managed to communicate. Her brother Anthony was born the first year in America. Then in 1929 twin boys were born on St. Patrick's Day, Kevin and Frances. Shortly after their birth, The Great Depression then took place, in Oct, 1929 and a hard life just got even harder. Salaries were cut and Teresa's father walked from WNY to Hoboken where he worked in the shipyard. Like most of the Irish men from the old country that worked in the mines, he had a custom of having a few drinks on the way to work, and on the way home. Every night it was their custom as a family to say the rosary, and if her father came home while it was being said, he would kneel down and join in even if he was tipsy. The youngest brother Joseph was born in 1930.
Teresa loved school and learning, but the family always came first. She had to help with cleaning and tend to the little ones before going to school. All the children old enough to work had to work. She would hurry through her chores so she had time to do homework and go to school. By the time she was 10 years old, her mother would send her to different neighbors' homes to wash floors, laundry, ironing or any chores to help keep the family fed. Her mother didn't believe that school was important and preferred to have her children with her, but Teresa loved school.
She was always very self-conscious about her bright red hair and her thick Scottish brogue. She was very shy and when she got embarrassed her face would get bright red, almost the color of her hair. She also hated all her freckles.
When Teresa was around 13 years old, she got a job working for a well to do Jewish neighbor babysitting and housekeeping. One day while the baby was sleeping she thought she would surprise her employer by rearranging the china closet with her beautiful dishes. When the woman came home, she was very surprised. She was screaming and yelling and Teresa had no idea what the problem could be. The woman had to get her husband home to see the situation and find a solution. For those of you who don't know by now, the Jewish tradition is that the meat and dairy dishes are never to come in contact with one another. Teresa helped the lady of the house kosher all the dishes by boiling them.
In the coming years she began to take over the responsibilities of the parent, because her mother never truly adjusted to life in America. She would help them with their homework, she would talk to their teachers, she did the shopping and after her first year in High School she had to leave to get a full time job to help support the family. And her father was on his way to becoming an alcoholic.
She was 16 years old, and in 1937, when she got her first job, as the payroll clerk for WPA workers at the courthouse in Jersey City. After that she got a job at an embroidery factory. She learned how to thread a bobbin without shutting down the machines. This was important because the boss would scream if he heard the machines stop.
When she was about 18 years old, she would go to lunch at a nearby diner and the men who were there having lunch would love to embarrass her to see her face turn red. They would comment on her red hair or her freckles and then they would laugh. To avoid this she found Tedesco's Restaurant that was never busy at lunch time. Often she would be the only customer there. And she would have her lunch in peace and read her Bishop Sheen books.
It was the reading material that made Al Tedesco approach her to discuss religion, or at least that was the way she told it. Al wanted advice from her about how to help his fiancé dress more conservatively, and how to talk to her about morals and ethics. They began talking on a daily basis.
The year now is 1942, and the world was changing fast. Europe was under siege and WWII was upon us. Al asked Teresa to marry him, she accepted and they went to the rectory and they got married. Al gave the family a dinner at Tedesco's Restaurant and Teresa and Al went to the movies. They lived down stairs in Al's house, on 67th Street in WNY.
Al was drafted but because of his flat feet he was classified 4-F. Now their first child is on the way and the army air corps discovers that he is a musician, so his classification is changed to 1-A and off he goes into the army air corps marching band.
The next few years were very hard for the newlywed couple. Al wanted her with him, so when he was sent to Texas, she went too. When he went to Atlantic City, she went too. They had very little money, so he ate his meals at the base, and Teresa made do with very little. Joe was born in March of 1943 and so begins the family.
Teresa returns to West New York, New Jersey for the support of her family, so she could get a job and her brothers and mother took care of Joe. She got a job at the supermarket, where she had to learn the prices of every item so she could work at the register. There was no prices on the products and bar codes were years away.
After the war, they moved back into the apartment in Al's house. The year is 1946 and Pat is born in May, and then in September 1947 Mike was born, and then in September 1948 Tony was born. In August 1950 Tommy was born, and Tommy was not long for this world. He had Cistic Fibrosis and very little was known about the disease at that time. In fact, the doctors punctured his lung while trying to test for the disease and he died as a result. He was only 3 months old when he returned to God. Within these few years, Teresa lost her father and her father-in-law, both in their 60's.
Al and his brother Tulio took over running the Restaurant. Teresa had no idea how much work that meant. Al was working 7 days a week to keep his family business going.
Teresa was also busy with a circle of friends from West New York, helping to support a mission run by Father Fred. Father Fred would come from South America to raise money for his impoverished people. The depression is long over and the economy is better but the memory of always being hungry never leaves. So she and her friends do everything they can to help Father Fred.
In September 1951 Eddie was born and the home in Cliffside Park was bought. She joined Epiphany Parrish and became an active member in the Confraternity. It was here, at Epiphany that she met many lifelong friends. Then in July 1953 Terry was born (finally, another girl YEAH!). Roddy came in August of 1955 and he too had the disease Cistic Fibrosis.
Teresa wasn't about to let another of her children leave without a fight. The doctors wanted Roddy to stay in the hospital but she didn't trust them and rightly so. She took him home and fed him with an eye dropper at first.
Managing to maintain all the rest of her children at the same time, which she couldn't do without the help of her 9 year old daughter, Pat. At such a young age, Pat became the second mom in the family. In truth, to the children, Pat's word was second to mom's, even above daddy.
Because Al was all about the restaurant and work and not about the house and kids. It was Teresa who did the painting and the wall papering of the house. She got help from Mike who seemed to have a knack for all hands on projects.
Roddy thrived under Teresa's care and Pat's help. But she couldn't have accomplished this without God's help. We would all gather in the living room at night when homework was done to say a rosary. Then in January 1957 Chris was born, and then in March 1959 Vinny was born, both wonderfully healthy. Thank God.
Teresa's involvement in the church was growing, she helped to make costumes for fund raising plays and got Al to cook dinners in the church basement. There was always the Confraternity and the rosary society and she also continued to help fund Father Fred's mission.
In 1960, Roddy's health began to go downhill; he was very thin and coughed so hard when we would make him laugh. We would feel terrible that we caused him to cough. This was the year that a fire destroyed the restaurant.
Life got very complicated; decisions had to be made about the business. Money once again became an issue with the restaurant gone and Roddy's health unstable. As they struggled to rebuild the restaurant, Al moved his mussel business to Cliffside Park. Mussels were delivered to the house and stoves were put in the basement to create a temporary operation to maintain our mussel delivery business.
At the time of the fire, they also had a frozen food business and delivered in the tristate area. They delivered mussels in gallon jars, bushels of clean shells, and our famous mussel sauce. It was that business that sustained us until the restaurant could be rebuilt. Teresa's brothers helped in all aspects of the business including delivering mussels to pizza places and small restaurants, because Al never learned to drive.
The Board of Health gave us the okay to open the kitchen part of the restaurant that same year so the mussel business was allowed to return. The frozen food business soon resumed, and Teresa was relieved to have her house back as a home.
The restaurant now consumed all of Al's time, and Roddy continued to get sicker. Joe and Mike went to work with their father every day that summer to help with the cleaning and reorganizing of all the many canned goods. The Board of Health allowed these to be used if they were dried and stacked so they wouldn't rust. There were thousands of cans, and it took the whole summer to accomplish this enormous task.
Al and his brother, Tully worked non-stop trying to reopen the restaurant. In 1961 they had a Grand Re-Opening celebration, but it took its toll on both of them. Uncle Tully had his first heart attack. Al was only having indigestion problems. So he had to take on the bulk of the work. He was now running the restaurant, the frozen food business and the mussel business, with little or no help from his brother.
With Roddy's health failing faster now, the stress on the family grew. On more than one occasion the children would come home for lunch from school to find police cars in front of the house and they knew that Roddy was in trouble. Teresa would have Roddy under the oxygen tent and the kids would wait for the ambulance to come and take them to the hospital.
Al continued to have indigestion problems and it was getting worse.
Teresa still had to get all six of us out to Catholic School every day where white shirts and uniforms needed to be ironed. Homework needed to be done and someone was always about to make their first Holy Communion, Confirmation or graduation.
Tully had a few more heart attacks in these next few years, and in 1964, Roddy passed away.
Also in 1964, Joe was drafted into the army and Pat graduated high school and went off to New York City to the Foundling Hospital to become a nurse. Life goes on, but things would never be the same.
In 1966 Joe returned from the military and took up residence in the attic. The Vietnam War was brewing and Mike was drafted. This added stress to the family, as he was a hard worker at the restaurant and they couldn't afford to lose him. Not to mention the nightmare that came true when Mike was sent to Vietnam to the DMZ at the height of the war. This didn't help Al's indigestion, but in fact, made it worse.
Late in 1967, Al had his first known heart attack. Teresa had to deal with him being sick and the stress of her brothers running the restaurant. She had to become the ' go-between' with her husband and her brothers. Tony graduated from high school and was sent to the restaurant as a chef. The family dynamics then became even more stressful. Joe went to college on a GI bill and Pat was working as a baby nurse at Englewood Hospital. The war elevates in Vietnam, demonstrations took place in the streets in America, and TV is relentless about the death and destruction both home and abroad.
The Tet Offensive is all over the news and Mike is still in Vietnam! The rosary becomes more and more important to the Tedesco family.
In March of 1968, Mike comes home alive and very thin, but the relief for the family was huge. In April Mike was reassigned to Fort Bellvar VA, because he still had 6 months to do in the military.
In May of 1968, Al died at the early age of 49, and is the first person to be laid out at Macagna's Funeral Home.
Much to the horror of the Tedesco family, Al's brother Tully was the second person to be laid out at Macagna's 12 days later. He was only one year older than Al.
Finally, leaving Teresa with 8 children to care for and her brother-in-law Tully's promise that he would help her, was gone. During the next 6 months, Mike got as much leave time as he could get from the military to work at the restaurant.
The following year Tony gets married and Danielle (The first of her 30 grandchildren) is born. Mike joins Tony as a chef at the restaurant and Teresa comes to work at the restaurant full time. At first she did nothing but keep the restaurant clean, which included washing walls, bleaching dishes and washing table cloths, but eventually she learned many other aspects of the business, including making pizza.
Teresa worked at the restaurant until she was 75 years old.
You can visit the history of Tedesco's Restaurant & Sons here: www.tedescosrestaurant.com
