Amy Howell and Luca Coletāo

00:05 I am Amy Elizabeth Howell and 46. Today is Sunday, September 12th, 2021 and we're in Wilmington, North Carolina. I am interviewing. Luca coletu0101o, and I am Lucas wife.

00:28 My name is Luka cuz it only looks like today is Sunday, September 12th 2021.

00:41 And we are in Wilmington, North Carolina today.

00:46 Okay, look at I wanted to ask you. First of all, what do you remember about meeting me and their early days of our going out together, English teacher for these Executives or their assistance in these multinational companies in Paris. Yes. The party was held. That's, I can't remember the SI. I think it was. Yeah.

01:33 We are, you know why we didn't hit it off right away scared of me.

01:39 And that our first date must have occurred four months later, cuz I put the card in your mailbox, but you think it just emailed you all the time. So we just it just got lost in the home in bills. Remember meeting you at that company dinner. I had just moved to Paris and I hadn't even started work yet, but had been signed on and then they said, why don't you join us for our annual dinner? And I did and I was meeting everybody and

02:21 I guess I misinterpreted your the attention you're giving me as sort of judging me or appraising me or something. But later on. I think it was, I think you're right. It was early April. We actually,

02:38 We had contacted each other and arranged to go out for a first date. And I remember waiting for you at the one of the benches outside the metal. I think it was viburnum. It was right by the the Arc de Triomphe right station metro stop.

03:04 You know, that's what you did in Paris. You give people Rendezvous near Metro stations around Washington, d.c. So, you know, and then

03:24 I remember just having a nice time and wanting to go out with you again and again and

03:34 I remember at few days later. I invited you to go with me and my friends credit and Guillaume to see a play. And I don't remember what the play was. But I do remember that you turned up just before it started and I and almost late and you had your blue Oxford shirt on and a bouquet of flowers for me.

03:59 Those were the days. I'm just wondering. How is it that? I'm like me, someone with no French Connection whatsoever. You have American Dad, Vietnam, vet and the British Mom. That's right. I was determined that. That's why I remember vaguely. When I was a child hearing and other people speaking to each other in a foreign language and being a Macy's to that, those jumbles of sounds were words and sentences and that those people understood each other. And and so, I decided that when I was going to learn a language, I really wanted to learn it and master it and I started like most other

04:54 Students in America at the age of 14 to learn French and I

05:03 Part of how I chose to go to the College of William and Mary was because they had a study abroad program in France. I didn't look at any Universities that. Didn't have a study abroad program in France and they at the time had one for a year. And so when I was an undergraduate at William and Mary, I spent my junior year in Montpellier France, and that is where I really solidified being able to speak French fluently. And

05:40 Just loved living in France. And so I returned to William and Mary for my senior year and graduated and then went straight back to live in France and

05:53 So I had my friends, my friends improved, and I actually continued my studies there and studied translation and Linguistics a little and lived in a year for a few more years. And then there came a time when I felt there was a need to change from a day and look for a job. And I look for job in Paris. And that's how I ended up in Paris. I was hired to teach English.

06:26 In that same company where you were working and that's how I ended up in Terrace. That's how you met me in Paris and that's how I came to speak. French.

06:35 So well, because I was determined.

06:38 A lot of willpower, my Spanish is so bad after 2830 here because my mother was born in France. My father was a born in some Paulo Brazil, but he left immigrate to France was family just in time for the World War II. He spoke five languages and I was my first language in New York City. Lori side. Was you there? You can hear it was all part of Rican. Black Jewish, Chinese Italian neighborhood. There was at least 20 languages there, but me and my twin brother Dominique. We were very special. Nobody else spoke. It was the secret coded language, French.

07:36 Go to American public school to get the English, correct?

07:40 So both your mom and dad would always speak to you in French at home. Did your father. Did you ever hear your father speaking? One of the other languages he knew I never could decipher.

08:05 What about? So you said your parents? You said, your parents. Your mother was from Leo and your father originally was from Brazil. Do you know, where where they met. Do you know anything about?

08:30 Do you know what they were doing with their jobs? Were at the time they met at the brasserie. I know the history and this is in New York, New York Long Island. That went to put fail, completely in East Hampton in the sixties. Nobody live there. At the time. My mother was selling a Dior.

09:05 And what she actually want to be a baker. She never worked with my father and she can stand it unless I can never took care of the household. Sometimes it's hard for a husband and wife to work together sometimes. So it. But your mother worked for Dior was this before you and your father moved to America? Yes. Yes. I think she works in London also.

09:38 Your father is a Vietnam vet. You know, you wanted to, I can tell you a little bit about my parents. So my dad Henry Thomas Howell, he's originally from Iowa, and his family has been in Iowa for many, many generations. And in fact, I think I'm, I've been finding out that our son ASA matisse's forbear, from whom he's named after the ASAP part in Emerson.

10:15 Was in Vermont originally, and I think it's his son who left Vermont and went to Iowa and that was extinct the late 1700s because Asa Emerson was in Vermont during the time of the American Revolution to anyways, about six generations to my dad and

10:44 He says he grew up in Oklahoma. That's the place he'll claim and he joined the army after his university studies. And it's at some time. He was stationed in, in a base in Holland.

11:05 And that's where he met my mom. My mom is British. She's

11:11 Past England and half Scottish and she, she was born in London.

11:18 And she

11:20 Ended up taking a job teaching at the International School in accident in Holland, and she used to go out with her girlfriends to the Officers Club. And that's where she met my dad. And and that's how come I'm half. British and half American as my American father and British mother were working in Holland. And then now they're in Virginia. Not far from where I went to University.

11:51 Which university I went to William and Mary. What about you? Where did you go to university? Where do you do? Do your studies School Visual Arts?

12:04 But I was about the time I got my diploma 90 91 92. I was already Obsolete and not touch the computer. My brother was a computer geek in the family.

12:15 And that's not what the eight years I spent in Paris. I used to use the fish at me because I went and the three years of computer training, While I Work 8 hours in Paris, in working parents of the city for lovers. And it's not New York City on each other. I want to clarify such an easy City to be when you work. They have an expression in French metal below, do which translates to take the subway. Go to work, go home, go to sleep.

13:15 I prefer to call that the rat race. And so we, we we, we were not really, I don't know for myself. I didn't really see if future in Paris, our rent was going up and it was a relatively small apartment by American Standards. I think maybe not buy New York, standard 5, but you know, I just thought my I need my job. I had sort of talked out of my job. I couldn't go anywhere. They would have loved for me to stay there, but it wasn't going to evolve and they were never going to give me a raise with what they told me.

13:57 And so I felt like it was time to go back to the United States and

14:05 And be back closer to my parents in Virginia, and we ended up in North Carolina. Do you remember how we chose North Carolina or Great rule, a friend of ours American transplant in Paris as well in her that we wanted to go to the South somewhere, but not the not feel isolated in a very rural place and she suggested that we go to Chapel Hill.

14:42 Said, she, we would like it in Chapel Hill, but we ended up choosing.

14:49 Durham which is right next to Chapel Hill and we really liked Sturm. And what what after spending what was it? Eight years in? Durham made you decide to do that. We should try to look for a place to live in Wilmington. I was up, you know, I was trying to be a fun print maker, but I learned that space. Where are you going to print Studio? There's nothing there was none in New York hardly anymore in DC. Nothing in Baltimore, and nothing in Paris anymore for a force to do.

15:33 Real up in making work so that the idea was to turn in Baltimore return. The factories in the Lost in the 90s, W abandoned building, but, you know, you just constantly got chased out by the cops.

15:51 Before I met you.

16:00 And then I said, well your family well for my parents cuz they could not do can Trinity inside of Durham and we still have that place. We're doing short-term rentals with it now and the plan was keep on doing short-term rentals and find a place in Wilmington. It was either of the beach Carolina beach or the historic. The historic downtown neighborhood.

16:32 I remember that we were talking about wanting to be somewhere where we could live closer to the downtown closer, to the urban center and where we could have a live walking to places like we used to do in Paris where we walked in New York or New York. Yes, and and we have that here in Wilmington and we can walk to the market and we can walk to the river and walk to the park sand.

17:04 Restaurants and shops in the museum, in the library. We can walk everywhere that we can go for weeks without using our car. Our son's school is within walking distance. We walk so much. We got rid of the second car. We just have one car.

17:21 So, it was searching for not Manhattan, but a little bit of urban living, wasn't it? And yet I needed something. That was a little bit more Suburban. I needed a house with a garden space, which, you know, we found here in downtown Boston 1866. That's right. They will not let you go. Mandy. Will they don't understand? When the what is rotten, just change material. They don't understand that.

18:07 But this speaks to the whole issue of why I went to not continue as a fine arts, printmaker and ended up doing renovation and restoration and housing. Well, that's the issue. Housing is the issue with the USA. Where's our kitty is now 9 years old or if we don't decide that, you know, selling something would allow us to a big tour of the world or something to eat when you have will be fine. It's something like that returning to France.

18:58 Next in this decade The 20/20. Yes. I hope so. I hope that we can at least do something like that to help pay some Matisse to learn French. Needs to be immersed in a way that he hasn't been with us and although he's he's been learning French and English since he was a baby in Spanish and now Spanish at the bilingual elementary school. He needs to be immersed into the place and the culture before he gets a chance to

19:35 Practice really having a conversation and expressing himself in French and I feel it. I feel strongly that we need to provide that for him. You know, whether it's

19:50 Going for a few weeks at a time every year or whether it's taking a year or a semester to go there and enrolling him in school. There are, these are things that I'm thinking about it.

20:05 How to do that for him, a public school language, immersion school and I spoke I speak predominantly French him at home and I'll give him contacts. When you doesn't understand what can translate with 25 Words With Friends so far. He's 9 years time. I mean, I didn't start till 4:14, and I didn't have french-speaking parents talking to me.

20:44 Yes. Yes. Yes. A mersenne.

20:50 Play Generations back from ASA Matisse, our son. Yes, that's right. I wanted to choose an old-fashioned name. That wasn't so common and I liked the idea of choosing something family related. That's where the ASA comes in and then we both wanted something French as well.

21:11 And again, something not so common.

21:15 And we came to agree that Matisse could sound like a part of a first name as well and respect you appreciate very much. And 100 years ago, that made Pablo Picasso jealous. And so we are not finished or negotiation.

21:54 The name for a kid when he was born on March 8th. Wait, I don't think even a day. They wanted something on that paperwork to get that birth certificate in the, the birth registered right away, and we

22:16 Kind of came to that agreement, kind of quickly, but

22:21 I like it. I like a sandwich. He says a name for our son.

22:27 So,

22:30 I was going to ask you Luca to tell me a little bit about your stinking, your musings about how our life is now, but you may be thought, you might have been doing at this time in your life when you were in your twenties.

22:53 Hannah meloche when I have a sum of these. When I was closing on 50,

23:01 What can I say? Mike is the whole point of my life and I wanted this for my parents didn't have bosses when I was a child. So I Independence self-employed short-term rentals. I have another ambition of a big art project which makes me a penny yet in politics, a current in all the ancient civilizations over a thousand years ago, all over the world mean, even the North America. They don't seem to be recognizing some of the written graffiti that we have all over North and South America.

24:02 It's installing subject and has to be graphically portrayed and I love drawing maps and I love joining the ancient glyphs and hopefully we get that shed in. Orland backyard will have a 3D print shop in person that I know you've been researching this project very from closing on 20th, studiously from. As long as I've known you.

24:25 And then, you know, other things come along that we have to do.

24:32 But also, I'm here realizing is, were talking about this tip, too. It's not so different in some aspects from what you have been doing, you had being taking places. It would you know, whether it was in New York or Baltimore and doing renovations and and making your space for living and working. And and that's what we're doing here in Wilmington to with our with our house with manual labor. Jose is a grave mistake in education. Last 56 years on it all the way Christians plumbers and the carpenters in the United States of America. And you know, I can't believe

25:32 Brandon.

25:34 And I don't know how long he's going for his job to prepare the work in fast food. It's a little sad. Is it a preference? I don't know, but I can say that I learned, maybe I learned recently from my parents that

25:50 My great-grandfather in America, in Iowa. My father's grandfather. He was a, he was a carpenter. He was also a deputy sheriff, and an elected Sheriff there to turn in Fairfield, Iowa, but before that he was a carpenter.

26:13 And also, I was at my great grandfather in England.

26:19 He too was a carpenter and a wheelwright.

26:22 And the era when you had horse-drawn carriages so dumb.

26:30 Carpentry is in my background. Although I didn't learn carpentry, but

26:39 Not necessarily frowned upon. I don't believe across the board in many parts of

26:46 The United States at least when my father was young. I don't know.

26:53 About, it's interesting to think about how people in France where they had the hardship of WWII and how they felt about progressing and improving their lives after.

27:08 After World War 2.

27:13 Just interesting to think about where our families were our parents and grandparents have come from and

27:23 And how all that is, you know, we have that background, that shared background, the two of us and and here we are in the United States. And what's more in Wilmington? North Carolina to transplants in Maryland in between Baltimore and DC. I love it here or stops in North Carolina. I love it. Here in Wilmington. We've met a great group of people. I think that's thanks to a child with chuck. If a parent have a few friends with kids, in the 90s, in the adults, but this is a great group of people don't have a kid and don't want a kid, but the rest of the all of parenting which is a hard job.

28:21 Control of digital devices, especially covid-19 this group of friends that we've made since we've moved here as it is a nice Community. We have a nice community of friends and with two other three other families, we set up a what people called a bubble or a pod for schooling. Our children last year the school year 2020 2021 and in our little group which we called safe buns, that was an acronym of the first names of all the children's over the kids and we shared responsibility of, which households were going to welcome the children which day and we arranged to have children outside.

29:18 Which we can do anymore for most of the year in Wilmington, because doesn't get cold until relatively late and

29:27 And we did, we do take turns facilitating all their classes. Getting them all into their various different Zoom, lessons, and doing their assignments. And

29:38 Before sending a summit East back to school, when the school was on a hybrid schedule. And

29:49 I remember feeling very hopeful and positive about.

29:54 The future on the day of President Biden's inauguration. And remember deciding that day. Yes, let's send a summit. He's back to school. There was still on the ABC schedule where he would only be in school 2 days out of the 5. And

30:13 Felt safe about it and and hopeful about that.

30:20 About sending him back to school and the and the precautions that the school was taking and that our school district is taking

30:30 And ironically this year, when we have the vaccine, it actually feels a bit more scary to send them to school, but we no longer have the option of doing online. Learning the Delta variant is.

30:44 Kind of going through the student population in the elementary schools. And as well, as, you know, what the universities, but we know several young grade school children, who have covid-19, and it seems to be much closer to us into our family then then last year.

31:06 I want to say this is the day after 9/11.

31:19 The Downing of a United 93 in the Shanksville, Pennsylvania and the unity in the western world. After that day was amazing.

31:30 Now you see this this this country the way it is, I mean back then Fox News was even five years old. The 20 years of brainwashing that has occurred and the produce the January Sixers.

31:44 That the Trump attempted to rabble-rouser.

31:56 You loved seeing Barack Obama on TV.

32:04 And then you hissed at Donald, we've known, since I was a teenager in New York City, to be president United States. And this is where you don't have that, Unity that we have September 11th and 12th, 2020 or 2001. And I can't believe it's cuz I I wasn't a fan.

32:34 But was very proud of George W. Bush's statements, yesterday in Pennsylvania. That there's hope. And, you know what? I wonder what everybody's thinking about it.

32:53 You know, even

32:55 January Sixers, you know, and, and I when I feel kind of

33:02 Do me or like a despairing about?

33:07 World news in or politics or divisions in our country and also in France, and also in, in Great Britain, you know, they had brexit there and they have the phone in France, but then I just remind myself or I think, you know, we need to remember that. There are there are artists and there are progressives and Peep. There are people many, many, many people who are working to, to move us forward in our in our thinking. And in our

33:43 Embracing of each other and

33:49 And there are things that we can find comfort in these archives. I mean, I'd love to know what my parents were thinking when they move to the United States in 1960. What, why? Then she knows. I know we didn't get to interview. Then you never really told me what it is and it's our job to help to raise him to be a happy person. Who's

34:32 Thoughtful and helpful and finds his place in society, but, you know, looks at wording and seeks to, you know, I think it's important to try to help people or

34:49 Somehow, you know, personally or on a on a larger scale.

35:01 Who's joking this past week and someone I don't know it was on empty. Our assumptions have been with a woman and the stay in love with her so long, I had a relationship that made the previous marriages made six or seven years. That was tops. We're going on 20. You want to use a 2000 to 2022? Yes. I do. Remember the address. I never doubted that you did know it and I and I and I do love you very much and I'm so glad that that you love me too. And that we've spent these near twenty years together and we'll have 20 40, 60 more. However many we can live together.

36:01 In her last years and you went to Duke Medical take care of my father.

36:06 That guy. I mean you made 88 he was smoking, black. Tobacco drinking, cognac to his organs with a rotten and you made 88 and they took great care of them and they trying to take care of my mom. I think I do. My job is the risky drug. That might be the first attempt to cure Alzheimer's. He didn't have it. My mom had it and it was terrible. Well and I can tell you the medical research medical scientific research in North Carolina is on a high-level. So Bravo, I don't know. Preferences for Duke UNC NC State. They're all fine. Establishments.

36:50 Am just simply taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other taking care of each other.

37:01 Well, thank you, Luca for coming and doing this storycorps interview with me. I've always wanted to do a storycorps interview and I'm so glad that I got to do this with you. And I will have this as a Keepsake for son.

37:22 And thank you. Good night and good luck.