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In 1929 Anchigi, the much loved son and brother of the Lafranchi family, died
at 51 years of age. His death came at the end of a long and slow illness during which
time he had continued to be nursed by his sister Olimpia. Just three years later, at the
age of 80, his mother Margherita died and was buried with her husband at Eganstown.
Along with Margherita's name, a memorial to Anchigi was inscribed into Andrea's
headstone, symboUcally reuniting four members of the Lafranchi family.*^ At some
stage a photograph of Andrea was also included, this traditional Italian custom
reasserting the patriarchal nature of society at that time despite Margherita's years of
successful farm and hotel management. Margherita's will, which she had kept in a hat-
box, instmcted that aU her money and property be left to the three daughters who had
helped her mn the hotel. Each of her children was thus left financially secure: her
eldest son with an independent income and her remaining daughters the responsibility
of their husbands. The three single women continued the hotel's operation into the
1960s. Olimpia died in 1964 aged 88 years and Florida in 1966 at 82. Margherita
remained with the business until 1967, selling it ten years before she died at age 90.*^
All the Lafranchi children (except Anchigi) lived to a good age. Giuseppina
and her daughter Olive retumed to Cevio in 1960 where old days and friendships were
recaUed. Ines Morretti, Griuseppina's best friend and namesake for her daughter,
received them warmly as did a family descendant, lawyer Arturo Filippini.*'*
Giuseppina and her daughter travelled to Coglio where they met Maria Lafranchi,
Griuseppina's first cousin who, perhaps motivated by the success of her Australian
relations, also ran a hotel. The old Lafranchi home in the main street of Coglio was
still standing but had been modernised.
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