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Valerie Thurston

Valerie Thurston

Valerie Thurston is a debut novelist and author of the Amazon bestselling family saga "Food Poisoning: A Family Saga of Love, Betrayal, and the Fight for Legacy."

Sep 16, 2026

11:22
[laughs]
11:24
My aunt, so it's my mother's sister, I was having lunch with her years ago, and she said to me, she tells me this story about my grandfather, her father, uh, th- he came through Ellis Island from Italy at a young age.
11:40
So she just casually mentions, "Oh, well, you know, he left the seminary." I said, "W- wh- wait, wait, wait.
11:46
What?" She said, "Oh, you didn't know that?" And I said, "No.
11:52
No.
11:52
No one ever said anything about a seminary.
11:55
H- how did all this happen?" And she tells the story that in the town that they lived, Amadossa in Italy, at that time, your status in society was based on the number of religious people you had- ...

10 MINS LATER

22:19
Mm-hmm.

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