Missing mom and her toast of Sauvignon Blanc

There’ll be one less one wine glass on the Easter dinner table this year.

My mother, Dorothy May (Fuscellaro) Campanini, passed away during the final week of January. She would have turned 97 on March 15.
The architect — and cook — of every family celebration and holiday meal for 70 consecutive years — mom’s absence is still difficult to comprehend.
She wasn’t ill, as much as she was homesick and longed for her husband of 65 years — my Dad who died in 2003 — and the many friends she had outlived.
In early January, following the deaths of Uncle Sully, 97, and Aunt Ann, 91, mom was the last surviving member of the family’s greatest generation. “Greatest” because they started with little, asked for nothing, and through sheer will and determination, built an “empire” of modest middle-class homes filled with love, respect and children who never lacked for anything that truly mattered.

As I said in my mother’s eulogy, Dorothy had every reason to grow up bitter toward life; she was five when her American mother abandoned her on a sidewalk, leaving her alone to walk the streets in search of her father. He was an Italian immigrant who found work driving a public transit bus. It was 1924. Nearly 25 years went by before Aunt Connie found the woman working in a downtown shop and pointed her out to Dorothy. When my mother finally confronted the woman, she had one question: “Why did you leave me?” She never got an answer; and yet 30 years later, when that same woman was destitute and sick, my mother took her into our home and nursed her back to health.
That’s how I met my grandmother.
Where does such forgiveness, such love come from?
On Easter Sunday, Dorothy would sit down at the dinner table and sip a rare glass of dry sparkling wine or Sauvignon Blanc — something I selected. She’d turn to me and say, “Very good. I like this.”
For years the same simple, affectionate words would bring a smile to my face.
I’d give anything to fill her glass one more time.
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If you like Sauvignon Blanc, here are three I can personally recommend:

• 2015 Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, $9.49 — It’s good to see a wine improve year after year and remain priced to buy by the case. Open the bottle and fresh grapefruit, kiwi, and mowed grass from New Zealand fill the nostrils. It’s a citrus bomb on the palate, and tingles the inside of your cheeks with crisp acidity. I love this with … you guessed it … baked oysters with melted Gruyere cheese and bread crumbs.
• 2014 Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc, $9.99 — The citrusy New Zealander zest is raised a notch in this medium-bodied, pale straw colored beauty. The pink grapefruit and lime flavors, coupled with sea-salt minerality, produce a mouthwatering sipper. The finish is smooth and satisfying, especially with baked scallops on a bed of saffron risotto and a pinch of squeezed lemon.
• 2014 William Hill Estate Winery Sauvignon Blanc, $12.99 — California’s sunny North Coast allows the grapes to ripen and develop expressive aromatics and flavors. This is pedal to the metal in citrus notes: lemon, lime, grapefruit. The color is translucent, but don’t be surprised to find a few tiny bubbles of Semillon (2 percent) zest in the glass. Nice, round mouthfeel and crisp finish.