Editing Irina DiSanti, PI (section)

=='''Background'''==


Born in 13 Mar 1980 to Michael Antonio DiSanti, an NYPD homicide detective of Italian descent and Nadia Alexievna Rudiakova, a Russian émigré, Irina Michaela DiSanti grew up in a third floor apartment just north of 79th and Amsterdam, two blocks off Central Park West.  New York in the 1980s was a dirty, dangerous and desperate town, marked by violence and misery, destruction and decay lying side by side with glitz and glamour, big wigs and brownstones.  Even so, it was possible to make a living, keep your body and soul together, and make plans for a family and a future.  DiSanti met Rudiakova one winter day as he was canvassing a crime scene and she was walking home from her midnight shift at a local bakery.  They were quietly married less than a year later by a JP of DiSanti’s acquaintance and the precinct mug shot photographer provided the Polaroids of the event.  Rudiakova learned she was pregnant not three weeks afterward. Given the privations of growing up in the Soviet Union, Nadia’s health was never very strong and bearing her baby into the world made it plain she could never risk another.  Permanent steps were taken and Irina grew up an only child. <br> <br>  

Irina was much loved as a consequence, as well as pressured to excel in academics, and to the extent her parents’ income could afford, was stinted for nothing by way of affection or intellectual support.  It was an equal source of pride and consternation when she evinced an early interest in her father’s police work and discussions over the dinner table sometimes turned gruesome as Irina dragged the details out of her father.  Over time, he realized she had a flair for investigatory work and developed the habit of presenting her with puzzles cobbled together from assorted cold cases and while there was no solving the imaginary crimes from the material presented, they were good training.  Her tenacity served her well in school. She excelled in language arts, social studies, and sciences, less so with mathematics though her grades were solidly above average in those subjects.  It wasn’t much of a surprise when she announced her intention of majoring in political science in college as preparation for a career in law enforcement.  She graduated with a 3.95 grade average.  It stood her in good stead when she went to the Police Academy, following her father’s footsteps into the force. <br><br>

With her father’s ethnic background, it practically goes without saying Irina was brought up Catholic.  Her mother was brought up in true Soviet atheism...but had a grandmother who still clung to the Russian Orthodox faith and who had managed to pass it on to her granddaughter before dying.  Michael’s family was originally put off by his marrying a woman outside the fold, as it were, but they eventually came around when it became apparent that Nadia had no interest in causing controversy over religious matters.  She was happy to defer that decision to Michael and Irina grew up with an appreciation for her mother’s faith even as she was thoroughly taught her catechism and confirmed in the Catholic faith.<br><br><br>