VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Many weeks before our grocery shopping trip, you'll find my wife and me sitting at the counter of Marchese Italian Market & Cafe.
For us, it's a chance to relive our trips to Italy — our mornings sipping cappuccinos and eating delicious pastries. Marchese is the closest we've found in Hampton Roads to recreating that experience.
It helps that the owner, Annamaria Marchese, is from Italy.
She moved here from Naples in 2005 and opened her cafe on Pleasure House Road in Thoroughgood in 2011.
It's since become a magnet for others who crave the authentic Italian experience, including those who were born in the country.
"We're next to Norfolk. We have a base where 35 [families] from NATO, Italians, come over. Plus, there are a lot of military spouse(s)," said Marchese. “I don’t have a family here in The States. My customers have become my family.”
On her wall, hangs a proclamation from former NATO ACT Supreme Commander, Gen. Paolo Ruggiero of Italy, thanking Marchese for bringing the Italian experience to Virginia Beach.
“We love Annamaria. We think she’s a warrior. We think she’s done a great job," said Miana Fleming, an Italian American, who lives within walking distance of the cafe.
It's an appreciation she, and countless others, have for the single mom running her own business.
“She loves her customers. Everybody’s like family and she’s like family to us," said another Virginia Beach resident and regular customer, Gary St John.
But in early May, it all came to a sudden stop. A post appeared on the Marchese social media accounts, saying Annamaria was ill and the cafe would be closed temporarily.
“I did have a stroke. I’m 45. It was very unexpected," Marchese recounted to me on Saturday. “I couldn’t get up because the room was spinning, so the room was spinning around me and all of a sudden, one side of my face felt frozen.”
She says she was treated at Sentara Virginia Beach General hospital and, while doctors still aren't quite sure what happened, she was diagnosed with a lateral medulla stroke — also known as Wallenberg syndrome — a rare type of brainstem stroke.
Marchese says she lost the ability to walk. Her brother flew in from Milan for several weeks after to help.
But the family she's created in Hampton Roads also quickly stepped up. A fundraiser appeared on Marchese's social media, created by a friend.
It's since raised $16,500, surpassing a $15,000 goal to help cover medical bills and the cost of Marchese's income source remaining closed while she recovered.
“The whole two months I was closed, [I] was supported by (the) GoFundMe," she said.
It meant she could focus on physical therapy and continuing to get better. Though Marchese still has a ways to go, two weeks ago, she announced she felt well enough to reopen her beloved cafe for one day a week; Saturday.
“It’s fantastic and she’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met," said St John.
But Marchese insists she's taking it easy — a concern her customers have voiced.
She's headed on a two-week vacation home to Italy with a plan to return in early August.
“I'll give my mom and dad a big hug and tell them I’m alive and they don’t have to worry about it," Marchese said of her parents, who live overseas.
But she also promises to return, re-inspired and grateful for her customers — her Hampton Roads 'famiglia' — for stepping in when she needed the most help.
"I always try to find that friendship here, that family," said Marchese. "Grazie a tutti. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Con tutto il cuore. Grazie mille.”
