My Story: Giuseppe Baccelliere

How an Italian man came to settle here, becoming a stalwart of the parish. 

Giuseppe Baccelliere was born in 1947 in Oppido Lucano, Italy. He was 1 of 11 children and grew up in rural Italy which was yet to be industrialized. He spoke proudly about when they had a good wheat harvest. My how times have changed.

At 12 years old he went to College in Assisi, no coincidence that he would arrive in St Mary’ s with a huge stained glass image of St Francis of Assisi.

He did military service in Palermo and Genoa, but often said Italians made Saints not Soldiers.

In 1975 he came on holiday to ‘Sunny Crewe’ to see his brother Gaetano with a vocabulary of hello and how are you?. When he was young he was given a book about England and felt that he was destined to come here.

Initially he worked at the White Lion Weston where he met his wife Janet and then he spent 25 years at Royal Mail. He had 3 daughters and a son Maria, Francesco, Giovanna and Chiara. Sundays were the family day first the music in Church then a good dish of pasta and a glass of red wine. Very much a people person he always looked for the positive

His advice to all with problems was the rosary and communion, not forgetting a good confession!

The crib was his passion, in 1985 he first assisted with the church nativity. For the next 35 years he oversaw the building of it. Coincidentally, it was St Francis in 1223 who built the first crib at Greccio, in Italy.

He retired from the post office in 2006 and Italy won the World Cup, he was a big Juventus fan and keen Crewe Alex follower. He spent his retirement doing jobs in the church and also taught Italian part time.

He would be so proud of this community and the way it supported his family in his final weeks. On passing away I asked my Aunty to pray for my Dad who had just left us: she replied maybe we should ask him to pray for us ! .

You can see in the photos a shrine he built in his garden assisted by 3 boys in the summer of 1975. Unbelieveable 35 years later one of the boys who was about 5 at the time walked past the with his daughter and was wondering if the shrine still stood. To his amazement it was still in our garden.

He was even more amazed when he entered our house on seeing my Dad 35 years later!