My Grandfather’s Gold Coin and How It Impacted My Life

His gift lives on.

Saturday, May 1st was the 52nd anniversary of the death of my grandfather Anthony Pierro. It’s because of that man I do what I do today in helping people with their finances. I hope you have your coffee and indulge me for a few minutes as I remember my grandfather and how his path to Ellis Island led me to my path of helping people today with personal finances and goals.

Ellis Island

Anthony Pierro came to the United States at the age of 16 from Ariano Italy. If that town sounds familiar to you, that’s where the Sopranos came from. Just saying 😊. He arrived in Queens New York in 1913 but eventually settled in Newark New Jersey.

The first time I took a cruise with my kids, we were coming back into New York harbor at about 5 a.m. I wanted to get up to see the Statue of Liberty and try to envision it the way my grandfather did coming to the United States for the first time. Trying to feel what he felt coming to this strange new land. The nervousness, the anticipation. Our room was on the Lido deck with a balcony, I’m sure my grandfather was in steerage.

Welcome to Newark New Jersey

He ended up moving to Sussex Avenue in Newark. That’s where he married and raised my mom and her two older sisters. Ironies of life, four generations later my daughter’s first job as a guidance counselor was at a school in Newark on Sussex Avenue, a football…