Meet the Women of The Penny
LENA
(Maddalena Simeone)
The Crossing
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I crossed the Atlantic at seventeen—pregnant, unwed, unashamed. I arrived with a satchel, a secret, and a coin I refused to spend. In Little Italy, I became a midwife, a mother, and finally, myself. Not every woman arrives in America. Some of us land in our own skin.
“I became a mother on a boat. A woman in the birth room. And then, Lena Simeone.”
“The sea takes what you cannot carry.”
Franny
(Francesca Simeone)
The Quiet Flame
I sang in clubs and lit candles in secret. I was raised by two women who didn’t need to say “I love you” for me to believe it. The boardwalk raised me. Boston broke me open. I kissed girls in silence and wrote music I never recorded. But the echo? Still playing.
Sing louder than your shame.”
“I'm not the girl I was. I'm just the one who watched her burn.”
Lisa
(Luciana Benedetta Giuseppina Armstrong)
The Sound Remains
I didn’t build Echoes because I was fearless. I built it because I couldn’t lose another voice. I coded through tears, created through grief, and kept going because my mother once sang in the kitchen and I can still hear her. I’m not just a founder. I’m a listener. A seer. A witness.
“We were struck—but not destroyed.”
“Your voice is not just yours. It is ours. Let it echo.”
Angelina Armstrong
The Listener
They left me breadcrumbs—journals, recipes, rituals. I followed them back to Italy. I’m a nurse, yes—but also a seeker. I didn’t expect to find anyone. But what I found was the voice I’d been waiting for—my own. And it sounded just like all of them.
“Let your voice be loud. Your grief holy. Your love be known.”
“Echoes is not what we lose. It’s what lingers.”
Luigia
The Hills Knew First
We were midwives before we had the word for it. We caught babies by the moon, boiled herbs by instinct, and loved in silence. The hills held our grief. The river carried our secrets. What we couldn’t say aloud, we left in rituals and rosemary.
Your love cannot grow here. But your spirit will bloom elsewhere.”
“Bread and birth come from the same kind of hands.”
THE GALLERY
