Dover Library hosting author Thursday
The Dover Public Library will host a book signing for Dominic Gangale Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the community room.
Gangale has published two books, “The Greater the Love, The Deeper the Grieving,” a poetic tribute to his deceased wife, Dale, and a novel, “Love Me Silently,” in the past year. When he arrived in the United States at the age of 11, he spoke no English. Today he is an author who is halfway through a third book.
Dominic and his father, Antonio, traveled to America from the small village of Pallagorio in southern Italy. Setting out to find a better life, they settled in Cleveland, where Antonio had a sister. Dominic’s mother, Caterina and his six siblings followed a year later. “Dom” attended West Tech High School, learning English without the aid of ESL classes or any extra help. “You just learned because you had to in order to survive,” he said.
In high school, he met his future wife, started college, and then went to Viet Nam instead.
After training to go overseas, he was one of two men from the company chosen to work at Camp Smith in Hawaii, where he processed the orders for the entire Pacific Fleet. It was in Hawaii that he received his naturalization papers and became a citizen of the US.
Once home from military duty, Dominic worked for the Micelli Dairy in Cleveland. Because many of the workers were Italian immigrants and didn’t speak English, he was able to translate for them. He quickly worked his way up, learning the business, so that when a small cheese plant in Sugar Creek came up for sale, the couple bought it and moved to New Philadelphia. They built the business and then sold that plant, The Union Cheese Company, to Guggisburg Cheese, now one of the largest swiss cheese manufacturers in the world.
Dominic and Dale were married Aug. 29, 1970, in St. Rocco’s Church in Cleveland. They raised five children, Annette, Jennifer, Antonio, Dominic and Caterina. There were six grandchildren and a large garden.
“I didn’t like English classes in high school,” Dominic said, “especially spelling,” but something inside made me want to write.” So with three of his children in college, he decided to return to school and take some writing classes. “They helped a lot with creativity,” he said.
When Dale died, Dominic was so grief stricken he couldn’t communicate with anyone for two months. During that time, he dealt with his sorrow by writing poems to his wife, expressing his love and sadness. Eventually he showed the work to his children who suggested he put the poems together in a book. He never intended to publish, but as he gathered poems and photos, he connected them to Biblical verses, intertwined with a running narration of the Gangale lives together. The book became a lesson in dealing with the stages of grief, the strength given by faith and a coming to reality.
Dominic decided to publish when he realized that he might be able to bring some peace to others who had experienced the same depths of grief that he had. “I just didn’t think I could live through it,” he said, “but The Lord sees to it that you do.” The book was finished in a short eight months. He had begun work on his second book while writing the first.
“Love Me Silently” deals with the unexpected reappearance of an old sweetheart who causes the main character to re-examine his life. The third book will incorporate some of its characters, along with a number of new twists.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Dover Library hosting author Dominic Gangale Thursday
