Book Review from the Summer 2002 Issue of Fostering Families Today
by Cynthia Peck

"It's about life, courage, disappointments, and redemption."
—Mike Tvrdik
 
"A true story is always better than fiction. Everyone should read this story."
—Bud Grant
 
"The story of your life is a great lesson for all of us, to learn that no matter how many obstacles are in our way...we can succeed and exceed!"
—J. Marie Fieger

Did I Ever Thank You, Sister?
A True Story By Sal Di Leo

Sal Di Leo was in the third grade when he promised himself that if he ever had children, they would never feel pain or be alone.

Forty years later Di Leo, 48, now a marketing consultant in Minneapolis and father of two daughters, recalls that promise in his self-published autobiography, Did I Ever Thank You, Sister? His childhood pain resurfaced three years ago when Di Leo sat down and unloaded, in just six days, a book chronicling his early life.

Did I Ever Thank You, Sister? is a moving memoir of Di Leo's early days when, as a child of 8, he was one of four youngsters removed by the court from an east side home during the cold winter of 1962. Their father had deserted the family. Their mother was suffering from mental illness. There was no food in the house and the electricity had been turned off.

Di Leo was a tough, mean little kid with a foul vocabulary. His eight older brothers and sisters---there were 12 kids all together in the family--- already had hit the streets to escape from being sent to an orphanage.

The youngest four however, including Sal, were sent to the Guardian Angel Home in Joliet, IL, where they could expect hot meals and a structure in their lives. The four siblings---two boys and two girls---must have been quite a sight, he recalls, when they first arrived at the orphanage. Their hair was long and unkempt. They needed baths. But even sadder, they had lost all hope. They found hope and more at the orphanage. They found love, and faith, too.

"The sisters gave us as much love as any human being can give to another," he said. "It was an unconditional love for a bunch of kids whom no one wanted. They are amazing women. They taught us the importance of getting an education and how to work while they loved us."

This March, Sal appeared with Mary Jo Copeland in a WCCO Radio Interview in Minneapolis and discussed his book with Kim Jefferies. He defended the role of orphanages in the care of young children. Copeland is a Minneapolis native and nationally known advocate for the re-institution of orphanages in Minnesota and across the U.S.. Sal voiced his support for Mary Jo's efforts, describing how the Guardian Angel Home Orphanage in Joliet was a saving factor in his life.

The deep healing that Sal has experienced since writing his self-published book has flowed out in many directions. On a small parcel of land they own on a secluded lake in the pines of northern Minnesota, Sal and his wife Beth are building St. Francis Lodge. They are planning a log home overlooking the lake and have been clearing the site where the lodge is to go. St. Francis Lodge has been dedicated as a place where young women intent on becoming Catholic Sisters can go to find some peace from the city, and where full-time Sisters can get away and find some rest---all at no charge.

As of June, the Di Leos have put in the well and septic system, built a Grotto for Mary, built stairs down to the lake, and acquired docks for access to the lake. The electricity is in and a camper on the property allows them to stay at the land when they are working on it. Several individuals have bought memorials to help them pay for things like the Grotto, Stations of the Cross, and other special parts of the project. Sal has found a way to say thanks.

—The Fostering Families Today website is available at www.fosteringfamiliestoday.com.

Return