Cover painting

This portrait is of my great-grandmother, Maria Raffaella Ammirata.  (Italian women did not take their husband's last name.)  She was born in Bisignano Calabria in 1834.  Her only child, my grandfather was born in 1874.  He was Fedele Francesco Amodio.  We don't know much about Maria Raffaella.  She married Giuseppe Amodio in 1874.  He was a miller and from a family of milers.  He died in 1903 in his middle 70s.  She lived through World War I but I can't find her death record.
She was due to come to America with her daughter-in-law and granddaughters in 1913.  However, the physical exam in Naples prevented her from emmigrating as she had an eye parasitic infection called trachoma.  They were very concerned about this type of disease.  If she were travelling second class there was no physical exam.  She could have emmigrated without problems.  My grandmother, mother and aunts travelled to America.  My mom remembered waving and crying to Nona on the shore.  Later my grandfather sent money to his mother to come but she was fearful of travelling alone and possibly dying at sea.  She was 79 in 1913.  So she remained in Bisignano.
The Amodios travelled to Trenton, New Jersey where Grandpop worked for John A Roebling and where Grandmom had 2 sisters and a brother.  They had 3 more children (1 boy and 2 more girls).  Grandmom died in 1935, age 55 and Grandpop in 1939 at 65.  I never knew them.
The photo I used was taken probably in 1906.  My grandfather returned to America that year.  There was a second photo showing my mother as a toddler and I assume they were taken at the same time so that Grandpop could take them both with him on his travels.