Bismuti

Peter Bismuti was born on April 15th, 1966 and promptly adopted by my parents: Gene (short for Italian name "Virgenio") and Susan Bismuti of Olympia, Washington. I was brought home within two days of my birth and apparently was a pretty happy baby.

Dad

My dad was first generation Italian so he still understood it. Gene was a librarian in Olympia for the State of Washington and worked most of his life in the capitol building. He is a truly decent and honest person who worked until he was in his 70s to give his kids the best chance in life that he could. He was already 40 by the time I was born, so mainly I remember him sitting in his chair watching TV. My dad brought me home many books to read when I was young and that helped me a lot more than realized at the time. I used to stay up at night reading through stacks of books with brain-teasers or some form of trivia. My dad is 92 and still raising hell in his walker.

Mom

My mom was a strong, brilliant and incredibly idealistic woman who always did the right thing. If anyone ever tried to argue that adoptive parents love their adopted kids less than "real parents", she would have gone nuclear on them. Mom was the smartest and toughest and always thought that she was right, mainly because she almost always was.

A woman decades ahead of her time and who undoubtedly would have had an amazing career even at a time when women didn't have careers. She wasn't just a teacher, but a vice-principal, and certainly would have become Principal if she had been given the chance. Mom gave up her career to adopt kids as this was a necessary condition back in 1962 (can you believe that?).

Mom was very capable academically, she read one book each day and that is impressive (even if they most often were paperbacks). She was from a tough generation who grew up on farms and still got straight As in college despite nursing her sick grandmother. Mom taught me the piano at a young age and this also helped develop an aptitude for Mathematics as spatially the two are nearly identical.

Susan tragically died just as her only grand child, my daughter ♤ Jamie ♥, had just been born. This was a source of incredible sadness for her when she died, she desperately wanted to be a part of her life, no one would have loved Jamie more than her Grandma. However, I am glad that she did not live long enough to suffer through the painful years that followed, that would have been worst than death.

May she rest in peace.

Our family would have been considered lower middle-class, liberal, progressive, open minded and believed in social justice, and this was back before "The Jefferson's" first aired on TV.

Our parents never tried to convert us to their own religious or political beliefs, rarely would we discuss what was "true vs. false" or "right vs. wrong"; instead, the emphasis was to try and argue both sides and enjoy logic and debate.

Religion was not forced on us, the Catholic religion was offered for those who believed.

This way, we developed our own individuality and allowed the dignity of our personal beliefs.

Thanks for not intellectually raping me from birth as so many others are.

☭∈♰∈ + ⚓a⏏♪♮

--☭∈♰∈ + ⚓a⏏♪♮ 06:31, 12 April 2010 (UTC)