On Saturday, Richmond resident Luigi D’Angelo hugged his elderly mother for the first time in 15 years at the Melbourne airport.
The pair hadn’t seen each other since Luigi left for Australia.
The still sprightly Nicoletta D’Angelo is a 78-year-old widow, whose husband died 40 years ago in America, where he had migrated to in search of a better life.
Nicoletta then lost the other two people closest to her – her son and daughter – when they migrated to Melbourne.
For many years, Luigi did everything he could to bring his mother to Australia, but she remained stranded in her hometown of Tocco da Casauria, in Abruzzo.
Then this year, with the launch of a new migration policy, Nicoletta was finally allowed to come to Australia.
Nicoletta touched down in Sydney at 6:00 am on Saturday and arrived in Melbourne two hours later, where she was welcomed by her two children, Luigi and Giuseppina, her son- and daughter-in-law, her seven grandchildren and a crowd of friends.
Nicoletta and Luigi are pictured above, embracing after 15 years of separation.
