MAY 10, 2025

Netflix’s Nonnas: Good for the stomach AND the soul!

Today, I was emotional.

Not sure if it’s because tomorrow is Mother’s Day, because it’s cotillion weekend and John’s is in approximately nine years, or because I am two days Zoloft-free (by accident). Likely, it’s all of the above.

Turning on Netflix’s Nonnas was exactly what my soul needed.

From the opening scene taking us back to 1960s Brooklyn to the closing credit notes of Hyatt Street, I embraced every emotion and its accompanying adverb that I needed to feel on this particular evening. 

I’m pretty sure the plates from the Sunday dinner flashback were the same exact ones my grandma had, the grandma who lived down the block from me for 15 years. Beautifully nostalgic.

When the OG Nonna had young Joey breathe in the fresh scent of basil, I immediately was back in my other grandma’s house on East 3rd Street, with my father sitting right next to me on the plastic-covered couch. Exquisitely painful.

As the capuzzelle was arranged on a literal silver platter, I recalled vacationing with my family summer after summer in the hidden Italian gem of the Catskill Mountains, Villa Roma. Brazenly hilarious.

When Gianni’s photograph was placed back on the wall, I was overwhelmed with optimism for the future. Positively hopeful. 

For the 114 minutes this movie played, I opened my heart and allowed myself to embrace it all. I laughed. I cried. I felt. I healed.

It’s important to set aside time to feel your emotions, to experience them in their rawest form.

It’s also important to understand that you can feel two things at the same time, even if they are polar opposites. Hey, you can even feel four things at the same time!

Something else that was pretty cool to learn? “My people created the cannoli!” (insert Italian hand gesture here) #sicily #roberta #lorrrainebracco

The only complaint I have now?

I’m hungry.