Businessman Dominic Palazzolo hasn't guessed wrong too many times during his decades of success in real estate and marketing. But he sure missed this one.

        “I had no idea so many people would want to buy a cookbook,” says Mr. Palazzolo, 82, who owns D & D Marketing in Hyde Park.

        In August, we ran a story about how Mr. Palazzolo had published a collection of his wife's favorite recipes. His wife of 44 years, Rose Marie, was a renowned cook who died in a car accident in 1988. With the help of his son and niece, he compiled more than 300 recipes, mostly Italian-American favorites, in a spiral-bound book, Recipes in Remembrance of Rose Marie.

        Mr. Palazzolo ordered a few hundred of the books to share with family and friends. But he promised never to sell the books. Rose Marie wouldn't approve, he said.

        But after our story ran, calls came in from his wife's cooking school classmates, former associates and employees he hadn't seen in years — and from touched strangers.

        “I had a hard time coming to grips with it,” Mr. Palazzolo says. “Rose Marie shunned publicity, but if so many people wanted the book, why not make it available to them?”

        Within a week, Mr. Palazzolo figured out a way to keep his promise not to sell the book, but still share it with others. He asked Our Lady of the Woods, a small not-for-profit group home for the elderly in White Oak, if they would take orders for the cookbook and mail it out. Mr. Palazzolo would cover the printing costs, and the book sales would benefit the group home.

        “We were very surprised by the response,” says Sister Antonita Mettert, founder and executive director of the home. “It's just me taking the orders. But it goes pretty fast on the computer.”

        Since the story ran, Our Lady of the Woods has received more than 400 orders for the cookbook, raising about $6,000 to help subsidize room and board for residents.

        All because a man honored his beloved wife with a simple cookbook.

        “I think Rose Marie would be thrilled,” Mr. Palazzolo says.

        To order Recipes in Remembrance of Rose Marie, send check for $18 per copy (covers shipping and handling) to: Our Lady of the Woods, 3636 Semloh Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45247.

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