ANGIE and MARIA

ANGIE & MARIA is the love story of two World War II Navy wives who, because of a wartime tragedy, become devoted lifelong partners. Angie, 23, Italian-Nordic heritage, yearns to bear a child and to share her life with the only guy she has ever loved since their high-school years. Her anxiety grows day-by-day that he might not return from the war to fulfill her wish. Maria, 19, Puerto Rican–uncertain if she actually loves her boyfriend–hastily marries him anyway.

Angie and Maria meet at New York Penn Station when their husbands report for Navy duty. They slowly build a mutual trust as they learn about each other’s lives, about each other’s immediate needs. Angie, terrified to be alone, persuades Maria to share her nice new apartment for the war’s duration. Persistent racial prejudice depresses and angers Maria. Despite having met only a few hours earlier, the girls still enter into a mutually beneficial relationship as roommates–Angie receives companionship; Maria receives a “white” person’s respect.

Maria worships Angie for this serendipitous opportunity to escape from her miserable life in the deteriorating South Bronx. Angie respects Maria as an equal notwithstanding their social and economic differences. Their growing emotional and physical intimacy blossoms into more than a platonic wartime friendship–an unforeseen aspect about their sexuality.

The women learn to appreciate the value of a lasting and loving relationship from their elderly and wise grocer’s great love for his recently deceased wife. One fateful day two events–joyful and tragic–ultimately bond them into just such a relationship as a lifelong devoted parenting family.

ANGIE & MARIA is the poignant tale of two intertwined stories of love, loyalty and loss: Angie with Maria and their grocer’s memory of his wife. Despite the tragedy, the story ends on an emotionally uplifting life-affirming note.