Above:Lisa,
herdaughter,
Natalia,and
MissDally
enjoy
afternoontea.
Left:Lisa’sson
Leo.Right:Lisa
wrotea book,
ThePromise,
aboutherlove
forPaolo.MAY 2019 | The Australian Women’s Weekly 107
her refusal to be an Italian wife,
putting three meals on the table every
day while he did as he pleased.
“I remember flying over for her
wedding, but when I arrived, it was
postponed,” says Miss Dally. “She
had decided not to marry Paolo.”
When she left that time, Lisa swore
it was for good. She promised his
father she would never return, she would
let Paolo go. She became a reporter for
Network 10 and later a producer. It was
five years before she was back in Florence
on a writing assignment and tentatively
contacted Paolo. Paolo told her he had
realised his mistakes and understood
why she left. He had been wrong to
expect Lisa to be a dependent Italian
wife; he had changed. They fell in love
all over again. Their daughter, Natalia,
was conceived two months later.
Miss Dally was there for the birth of
her only granddaughter. “The moment
she was born, they gave her to me and
I walked around the hospital with the
baby,” she says. “She wouldn’t have
missed that,” Lisa adds. Their son, Leo,
would follow two years later. Miss
Dally also has seven other grandsons.
Lisa has written four non-fiction books
including The Promise and Death in the
Mountains, which solved a 100-year-old
murder in Paolo’s family, and is now
completing her first novel. She also runs
a writing retreat, The Art of Writing.
Lisa has been a different, more present
mother than Miss Dally. “I chose a career
that would be able to move with me,
where I could work from home,” she
says. “When the kids came home from
school, it was pens aside and keyboards
down. I’ve always been with my kids.”
Natalia, now 20, is the beneficiary
of three generations of strong women,
including her Italian nonna. She has
just completed a degree in international
relations in London, and is heading
towards working in human rights. She
already has a start-up which aims to
provide affordable electricity to people
in Malawi and Zimbabwe, countries
where up to 88 per cent of the
population doesn’t have power at all.
She’s been to China to work with
Crossroads, the charity Miss Dally is
ambassador for, and teach at her school.
To her, Miss Dally is a grandmother.
“I didn’t have access to the wholehype around Nonna,” she says, but
still ... “When I see her I am on my
best behaviour: no burgers, nothing
like that. If I were to have a burger,
it would be with a knife and a fork.”
She believes Miss Dally is often
misunderstood in Australia. “A lot of
comments are negative: ‘Women today
shouldn’t have this attitude. Women
shouldn’t be about etiquette’. But if
she has influenced me in any way, it’s
in the role of female empowerment.”
Natalia has seen Miss Dally’s impact
in China. “At the end, the girls just cry.
They hug her and say, ‘I have learned
so much about accepting myself.’ One
of the things we discovered there was
the extent of depression in kids not
reaching parents’ expectations ...
Nonna says: ‘Don’t rely on what your
parents want you to do – do what you
want to do.’ Nonna is trying to spread
that message, more than any other.”
Lisa was trained to be the superbly
put together Miss Dally woman who
turns heads as she walks into a room,
and she is. As far as the famous poise
is concerned, she says, “I can turn it
on and turn it off.” But that’s not all
her mother has taught her. “She has
always tried to go deeper and add
more layers to it,” Lisa says. “Be
honest, be genuine. And being the
best you can be is about finding your
own path. She always taught me that
manners are about being considerate.”
And after the years of quiet
rebellion, Lisa feels she has come to a
comfortable place in her relationship with
her mother, and she can admit that,
“In the end, all children do is try to
seek their parents’ approval. I have my
mother’s approval and I’m happy.” AWW