My Most Unforgettable Character

我 最 难 忘 的 人 （1）

She challenged us to succeed--and then showed us the way.

她激励我们要有所建树：并一直为我们指点迷津。

[1]In June 1976, I graduated from North-western University Medical School in Chicago. When my name was called, I walked quickly across the stage and reached for my diploma. But before the medical-school dean handed me the certificate, he asked my parents, Anna and Carlo Michelotti, to stand. Surprised, they rose from their seats in the audience. They looked at each other and seemed puzzled.

[2] The dean told the crowd that my parents, an immigrant Italian couple from a farm outside Chicago, had managed to send their six children to top colleges and graduate schools. (Three of us would become doctors, two were already lawyers and one was a physicist.) "It's remarkable," the dean said. Everyone cheered loudly.

[3] Mama's face was radiant with pride. I knew that everything we had achieved or would achieve was because of my parents. When we were young children, my mother, especially, was our mentor . Not until I became an adult did I realize how special she was.

[4] Delight in Devotion. My mother was born in a small town in northern Italy. She was three when her parents immigrated to this country in 1926. They lived on Chicago's South Side, where my grandfather worked making ice cream.

[5] Mama thrived in the hectic urban environment. At 16, she graduated first in her high-school class, went on to secretarial school, and finally worked as an executive secretary for a railroad company.

[1]1976年6月，我毕业于芝加哥的西北大学医学院。在毕业典礼那天，当叫到我名字时，我迅速起身穿过前台去领学位证书。但在医学院院长把证书发给我之前，他先让我的母亲安娜和父亲卡罗·米歇洛蒂站起来。他们惊奇地从观众席座位上站起身，四目对视，似乎有些困惑。

[2]院长告诉台下的观众，我的父母是意大利移民，来自芝加哥郊外的一个农场，他们已设法把自己的六个孩子都送进了最好的大学和研究生院。(我们之中的三个将成为医生，两个已经做了律师，还有一个是物理学家。)“这很了不起啊!”院长说完，台下一片欢呼。

[3]妈妈脸上泛出自豪的光芒。我知道我们所取得的和将要取得的一切都要归功于我的父母。在我们小的时候，尤其是母亲，成了我们的启蒙老师。直到我长大后才认识到母亲是多么不平凡。

[4]乐于奉献 母亲出生于意大利北部的一个小镇。1926年她3岁时随父母移民到了美国。她家住在芝加哥南区，当时外祖父在那儿做冰淇淋买卖。

[5]母亲就在这样喧嚣的都市环境中成长起来。她16岁中学毕业，毕业成绩是全班最高的，后来上了秘书学校，最后在一家铁路公司担任行政秘书。