Mike Capuano at the Athens airport before leaving for Israel

This photo was taken at the airport of Athens in 1980, when my son, Mike Capuano was leaving for Israel.

I remember this particular incident of which I am ashamed. I was at the airport, crying because he was leaving and there comes to me one of the ambassadors of Israel.

She tells me, ‘What is it? Why are you crying Mrs. Capuano?’ Because I was a Jew, they knew me as a doctor at the embassy of Israel.

‘I’m crying because my son is leaving and I lose him.’ ‘You won’t lose your son,’ she said, ‘you win him as there he will acquire his personality, you will see.’ And she was right.

There they leave the kids alone, so that their personality can come to the surface.

To get control of themselves and become independent. And even after he returned he lived alone of course. He was no ‘child of his mother.’

Photos from this interviewee