Frank and Maria Miscioscia reflect on 55 years of marriage

Luke Torrance
Frank and Maria Miscioscia (Photo courtesy of the Miscioscias).

The first time Frank Miscioscia heard of Maria Raimo, he was living in Bari, Italy.

“I had heard, before I came over [to the United States], that she was the most beautiful girl in the town,” he said.

But Frank and Maria, though both born in Italy (Maria was from the town of Avellino, near Naples) met for the first time in Port Washington in 1961, where they stayed in a boarding house. The area has been their home ever since.

“I really like this town, this has been where I’ve stayed since I moved from Italy,” Maria said.

The couple started dating near the end of 1961, a few months after Maria first arrived in the country to stay with her father. One of their first few dates was to go see a movie in Manhasset, where they were joined by an unexpected guest: Maria’s father.

“After we got home, he was asking me questions about the movie and then he started laughing,” Maria recalled. “And he said ‘I was there, I was two rows behind you. I wanted to make sure [Frank] was a good boy… from now on, when you want to go out, you can go alone — he’s a good boy.’”

Frank agreed.

“I didn’t touch nothing,” he said.

The couple dated for about two years before getting engaged and then marrying in December 1963. For their honeymoon, the couple went to Jamaica — the one in Queens.

“We didn’t have much money at the time,” Frank said.

In the 54 years since then, the couple had two children — both boys — and seven grandchildren. Frank founded a construction company and Maria ran a card store on Shore Road. At one point the couple ran an Italian-American deli at the current location of Carlos Pizza on Main Street in Port.

In 2013, their children and grandchildren threw a big 50th-anniversary party for Frank and Maria, inviting back many of the guests at the couple’s wedding years earlier. When asked to explain how they managed to make the relationship work over the decades, Marie said it was because the two tackled their problems as a team.

“You have to work together and solve all your problems together,” she said. “Everything is hard and life is hard, but if you can work together you can do it.”

Frank and Maria Miscioscia in the 1960s (Photo courtesy of the Miscioscias)

When asked what they liked about each other, the couple each had a joking answer. Frank said he loved Maria because she is a good cook.

“I like him because he agrees with whatever I say,” Maria said of Frank.

The answers sparked laughter from each other and the other family members sitting around their kitchen table. But after the laughter died down, she gave her honest answer.

“There’s nothing to disagree with him,” she said. “He’s always smiling, he never gets mad … he’s good. I’m going to keep him.”

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