This was wonderful.  You did have a difficult childhood because of your mother's illness, but you certainly had your father's love and his culinary skills.  And you appreciate how much harder his life was - people experiencing war and deep poverty ALSO had to deal with problems of mental and physical illness and family conflict, as any reading of Italian (or other) literature of the wartime years will remind us. 

Your father's cooking sounds utterly delicious. How much I'm looking forward to local vegetables such as those beans and tiny new potatoes here at Jean-Talon market!