Monday, May. 05, 1958
Death in the Valley
As the news spread to the remotest corners of Europe, swarms of gypsies got into their cars and trailers and headed for the town of Lendinara in the Po valley. There, in the center of the Piazza San Francesco, a great tent stood, and around it the gypsies gathered to begin the vigil. Inside the tent, surrounded by seven tall candles, Queen Nella ("Mimi") Rossetto, sovereign of one of the largest (estimated number: 10,000) and richest gypsy tribes in Europe, lay on a straw mat dying.
"One Can't Complain."In the 65 years since her birth in Bilbao, Spain, of Hungarian parents, short, snub-nosed Queen Mimi had seen great changes come over her people. "Once the gypsies were horse traders," she explained to reporters from her deathbed last week. "Progress has compelled them to deal in used autos. But one can't complain." From stateless, fortunetelling wanderers, the Cuirara tribe became prosperous, passport-carrying salesmen, who drive in style up and down Europe in search of fresh markets for their cars. Only two months ago, Queen Mimi and an entourage of 50 set out in six Buicks, a Cadillac and seven towed caravans, on a trip to Rome. Queen Mimi never made it. At Lendinara, ill with diabetes and a succession of heart attacks, she was forced to go to the hospital.
To her doctors' dismay, she swilled slivovitz, puffed on her Tyrolean pipe and declared that she had never felt better. But last week her condition worsened, and the tribal regency council insisted on moving her to the tent in the town square. "A gypsy queen," they said, "must die in her own tent on a mat of straw."
50,000 a Closeup. As her subjects gathered, tourists, reporters and photographers streamed into the square too. In spite of their loyalty to their queen, the gypsies could not resist doing a little business. To keep the curious even more so, they fanned romantic rumors about the queen's hidden $32,000 treasure. They also made newsmen pay for everything they got. Prices ranged from 5,000 lire ($8) for a photograph of a gypsy weeping to 50,000 lire for a closeup of the queen herself. "For only 5,000 lire more," a gold-toothed, top-hatted elder told an Italian reporter, "you may touch the queen's hand and ask her anything you wish. Of course, we cannot guarantee that she will answer."
At one point, as if stimulated by all the excitement she was causing, the queen seemed to rally. But then, one morning, as a chill wind blew, the men began to wail, the women shed their jewelry, and throughout the encampment the gypsies sipped a scalding special brew out of silver-plated cups. They dressed the queen in her best flowered skirt, put shiny new shoes on her feet, ringed her wrists and fingers with gold. Only a few minutes before, having received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, Queen Mimi had whispered, "Forgive whoever does wrong," and then closed her eyes forever.
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