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ABOUT ME STORIES
About Chantal Christie Weiss
‘I am my own muse.’ — Frida Kahlo
“Turn your scars into stars.” — Robert H. Schuller
I grew up in a small market town in the southeast of England. My father was originally from Sicily, relocating to Naples as a child. In the 1960s, at the age of sixteen, he moved to England, following in the steps of his aunts who had already migrated here, like many other Italians during that decade.
He and my mother met by a serendipitous turn, through one of his aunts who knew my mother from a time before. My parents became lovers — it wasn’t meant to be anything serious or go any further than being just lovers.
So, I was born, despite this, and when I was about four years old, I almost ended up living in Italy; my parents struggled together, and my mother struggled being a mother.
And so, my father took both my twin and me to his homeland of Contursi, Naples, to live with my grandmother. I had never met her before, and sadly, didn’t get to know her after that time, even in my later life.
I vividly remember the Hovercraft we boarded to cross the English Channel, and the long, long drive past vast Alp-like mountains and blue cheese skies. My new life abroad reverted to a…
