Livia Shares her Storybook with Students

The daughter of Italian immigrants, Livia (now age 95), walked into her first American classroom surrounded by voices she didn’t understand. With no ability to speak English at the time, she felt different, unseen, and left behind in a place where others her age found a sense of belonging.

Always passionate about education, writing, and storytelling, Livia learned quickly. But her father’s beliefs and the reality of her home life held her back from achieving all she knew she could.

Denied an education

Due to her mother’s struggle with mental and emotional health, Livia helped care for her sister, who was 13 years younger. Her father was often working, and when her mother wasn’t well, the bulk of childcare and household responsibilities fell on young Livia’s shoulders.

“I was more or less her mother, and to this day, [my sister] remembers all I did for her and thanked me for it,” Livia remembered.

As Livia neared adulthood, she dreamed of going to college to become a writer, but her father wouldn’t allow it. Her father didn’t believe that girls needed to pursue higher education.

Despite this, when her younger sister reached college age, Livia hoped her sister would have more opportunities. Livia stood up to her father and advocated for her sister to get an education. Much to her surprise, he eventually relented.

A passion that never left

Even after Livia left home, her mother’s mental health issues continued to dominate her life. Once, she had to leave her job for a year to care for her mother. Yet, she didn’t abandon her passion for writing—her experiences instead drove it to a deeper level. “You write to escape your own life sometimes,” Livia explained.

When she started a family of her own, Livia began telling her young daughter stories filled with vivid characters who went on fantastical adventures. After a while, she began writing the stories down. She also explored poetry and was published in several compilation books over the years. To this day, one of them remains by her nightstand.

Barriers to writing

Livia continued to write and live independently in Pennsylvania until an unexpected health scare stopped her in her tracks. “I could feel myself falling, and I passed out,” Livia shared. “I don’t remember Thanksgiving or Christmas [that year]. I thought I was going to die. I lost who I was. [I] was just trying to survive day in and day out.”

As a result, Livia’s daughter moved her to a hospital in New Jersey, so the two could be closer. Later, Livia moved into a skilled nursing facility. This meant leaving her sister, with whom she was very close, in Pennsylvania. “In New Jersey, things were completely different. I knew no one,” Livia said.

A return to storytelling

Little by little, Livia settled into her new life and began volunteering at a nearby elementary school, where she read to a second-grade class over Zoom. Known to the students as Miss Silly Lily, Livia connected with the children through her storytelling and formed a deep bond with them. Some of the children even visited her assisted living community on field trips.

As Livia struggled with mobility, had to give up driving, and depended more on her daughter than before, her creative mind desired even more. She dreamed of sharing a printed children’s book that she had written with the students she’d come to know.

Wish of a Lifetime and Mixbook made Livia’s dream come true by partnering to create the printed book, Happy-Hoppy Finds a Friend. Following the book’s printing, Wish of a Lifetime coordinated a reading event at the school so Livia could share her story and present each child with their own copy.

“I was anxious for the event, to leave the building and go to another location that I’ve never been to and speak. It was a lot for me. I wondered what I would say,” Livia admitted. “[But] emotionally and mentally, I was affected in the best way possible.”

As Livia read the story, the students remained engaged and peppered her with questions afterward. “This surprised me … and they asked me to come back. I feel I found myself in some way.”

Based on her early years of struggling to communicate and feeling misunderstood, Livia hopes that the experience might inspire someone else to process their thoughts and ideas through writing. “Knowing how to write is everything,” Livia said. “It is the foundation.”