From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

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Standing next to her I felt like a troll in Gap jeans, V-neck T-shirt, and lace boots, a look that had seemed so cool while walking across the lawn back at Wesleyan. However, she makes it clear that nothing could prepare her for the years of caretaking and the crippling grief once Saro dies from the disease. I love how even though she’s gone through such a tremendous loss, she can also acknowledge how much she’s gained. I have unintentionallly put myself through the emotional ringer this month reading so many back to back books regarding death and grief, but it has turned out to be an incredibly cathartic experience for me.

Her parents gladly attended, arriving in full Texan gear while dancing the Harlem Shuffle at the reception.After having had multiple on-campus affairs that had gone nowhere fast, I wasn’t looking for anything serious. An incredible journey through Tembi’s life, the book tracks her relationship with her late husband, Saro through three summers spent in the Sicilian countryside.

The way she looked at me when it was over — I feel like she could understand her own life, which has been so informed by the loss of her uncle. The poor guy who met and married the author is little more than a footnote for this 300+ page whinefest. There was no one with whom we could compare ourselves, no one to whom we could turn to for the ins and outs of long-distance, bicultural, bilingual, biracial love.

I’ve definitely been feeling the weight of it lately, and I’m really looking forward to being together with friends and family again.

Yet I wanted it so badly that I had to stop from screaming right there on the sidewalk and waking the residents above. My mother had organized labor from within at a factory job while holding her position on the dean’s list at the University of Houston. Yet, “He soothed the places I hadn't known needed soothing… Together we had engaged life as two forks eating off one plate. With that she turned the knob of the unlocked front door and immediately charged through the house like a tornado that had just touched the ground, following the sound of jazz and chatter that seemed to originate from some far corner of the first floor.From my place at center stage, I could see Saro moving like a wizard behind a scrim of sizzling heat, orchestrating the clamorous clanging of pots; setting the pace and unfurling magic onto plates from Acqua al 2’s narrow, searingly hot kitchen.

Saro, in all his ease, openness, and attractiveness, was not the kind of guy I went for—stateside or in Italy. I was so invested in her story and her family; I really felt for them and was sad when the book was over. To try, Tembi Locke climbs volcanoes, cooks, and communes with her husband’s family in a small town in Italy. Connor had mentioned that she had been a theater major, and that made perfect sense as she carried herself as though she were stepping onto or off of a stage.From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home is a poignant and transformative cross-cultural love story set against the backdrop of the Sicilian countryside, about how one woman discovered the healing powers of food, family and unexpected grace in her darkest hour. Below, the Locke sisters — who co-wrote the script — walk us through the true story that inspired the show, as well as the major differences.