here on earth
was a late April afternoon, one of those spring days when we touched and caresses sweet and soft as the hands of a child.
The sun still high above the horizon, the air light as a feather on the skin, and all around the awakening of the light and festive flowers, grass, trees.
Although it was a difficult period, so great was the joy in that I was infected: I went into a store and happily bought two pairs of shoes for me.
I was going, so carefree and happy.
The sun still high above the horizon, the air light as a feather on the skin, and all around the awakening of the light and festive flowers, grass, trees.
Although it was a difficult period, so great was the joy in that I was infected: I went into a store and happily bought two pairs of shoes for me.
I was going, so carefree and happy.
Upim I met was in front of the young foreign woman. She stood, seemed to hold. The looked at him surprised and curious: where did he come? Amber skin, hair and shiny blacks, big eyes scuri, un sorriso dolce e mite. Sorrisi anch'io, passandole accanto. E lei mi fermò, con grazia discreta. “Mi scusi se mi permetto, mi vergogno molto, sa, ma ho una bambina piccola che deve mangiare, e non ho nulla. Sono uscita da poco dall'ospedale, avevo un cancro alla tiroide”.
Era struggente. Sembrava una persona distinta e parlava un italiano eccellente.
Guardai le mie scatole di scarpe: non potevo comprarne solo un paio?
Le diedi qualche euro, e intanto le andavo chiedendo di lei, di come fosse finita in Italia.
Veniva dall'India, al confine col Pakistan, dove c'era la guerra. Era dovuta fuggire. Suo padre massacrato. Lei aveva venduto tutto a precipizio e con her mother and her child had come here for less than a year. But the money was gone in an instant, absorbed from the trip for months and had to sleep under the bridges of Rome, the little girl about two years, the mother of more than seventy. They were then folded Aquila no longer know for whom adventure. They had a roof, food. But she soon fell ill, hospitalized, operated on. Unemployed.
in India had been the husband and the only one to have: the house. But the house was lost, destroyed by a bomb tremendous. Luckily her husband was safe.
She had studied in Italy, ten years before, and taught in India. They were good before the war, a united and happy family.
Era struggente. Sembrava una persona distinta e parlava un italiano eccellente.
Guardai le mie scatole di scarpe: non potevo comprarne solo un paio?
Le diedi qualche euro, e intanto le andavo chiedendo di lei, di come fosse finita in Italia.
Veniva dall'India, al confine col Pakistan, dove c'era la guerra. Era dovuta fuggire. Suo padre massacrato. Lei aveva venduto tutto a precipizio e con her mother and her child had come here for less than a year. But the money was gone in an instant, absorbed from the trip for months and had to sleep under the bridges of Rome, the little girl about two years, the mother of more than seventy. They were then folded Aquila no longer know for whom adventure. They had a roof, food. But she soon fell ill, hospitalized, operated on. Unemployed.
in India had been the husband and the only one to have: the house. But the house was lost, destroyed by a bomb tremendous. Luckily her husband was safe.
She had studied in Italy, ten years before, and taught in India. They were good before the war, a united and happy family.
Poi la guerra, e in due o tre anni la distruzione totale, di tutto, di beni e di affetti.
Sentivo d'istinto che era sincera, e rimpiansi ancor più le mie spesi superflue. Le diedi altri euro e le lasciai il mio numero di telefono: non potevo fare chissà che, le dissi, ma se le difficoltà fossero state troppe poteva chiamarmi.
E dopo un mese chiamò. La aiutavo un pochino, quel tanto che lascia dignità a chi riceve e non spianta chi da.
A giugno un nuovo problema: la sua salute era in bilico e aveva bisogno dell'ospedale di Pisa. Mi chiedeva solo il biglietto del treno, ma io feci di più: le comprai due cellulari, per lei e per la mamma, che almeno potessero sentirsi, e le diedi un po' di soldi da dare a sua mamma per vivere qui mentre lei era fuori. Pian piano tutto si sarebbe aggiustato.
Partì. Cura e speranze iniziarono. Passò qualche giorno tranquillo.
Poi una domenica pomeriggio squillò il mio cellulare: sua mamma mi cercava.
Sua mamma! Non parlava italiano, non mi aveva mai vista: che poteva volere? Gelavo. Raccolsi le forze e risposi. Una voce disperata dall'altra parte: “I have a problem” - Ho un problema. Mi gelai ancor di più: “I have a problem”, la voce dall'Apollo 13, il grido disperato di chi era senza ossigeno.
In una frazione di secondo immaginai qualunque cosa, con un terrore incontrollabile.
Lei ripeteva he wanted his daughter, who could not call and I said "But you're right, the girl is alright?" I kept in my broken English, she listened to me, shouting the name of his only daughter. Okay, I said, I call her now and I'll call, okay. Meanwhile
get dark. Finally we could hear: the mother was in Rome, but the despair and you could not understand that it happened. The daughter left the hospital at the precipice of Pisa and took the first train to Rome at night.
The next day I heard it: the poor woman had been taken for two days at sea with the child - like a big favor - by the owner, and then left in a subway station because they fend for myself to return by bus to L'Aquila. But a fight between police and the boys had caught her without a residence permit and no documents had been arrested along with the desperate and frightened, crying child calling his mother away. They had a son away for immediate return. The next day boarding plane to India.
The daughter had to do a day in a row at the Embassy to get a few minutes to see her mother and the child and ensure that at least traveling together.
Sentivo d'istinto che era sincera, e rimpiansi ancor più le mie spesi superflue. Le diedi altri euro e le lasciai il mio numero di telefono: non potevo fare chissà che, le dissi, ma se le difficoltà fossero state troppe poteva chiamarmi.
E dopo un mese chiamò. La aiutavo un pochino, quel tanto che lascia dignità a chi riceve e non spianta chi da.
A giugno un nuovo problema: la sua salute era in bilico e aveva bisogno dell'ospedale di Pisa. Mi chiedeva solo il biglietto del treno, ma io feci di più: le comprai due cellulari, per lei e per la mamma, che almeno potessero sentirsi, e le diedi un po' di soldi da dare a sua mamma per vivere qui mentre lei era fuori. Pian piano tutto si sarebbe aggiustato.
Partì. Cura e speranze iniziarono. Passò qualche giorno tranquillo.
Poi una domenica pomeriggio squillò il mio cellulare: sua mamma mi cercava.
Sua mamma! Non parlava italiano, non mi aveva mai vista: che poteva volere? Gelavo. Raccolsi le forze e risposi. Una voce disperata dall'altra parte: “I have a problem” - Ho un problema. Mi gelai ancor di più: “I have a problem”, la voce dall'Apollo 13, il grido disperato di chi era senza ossigeno.
In una frazione di secondo immaginai qualunque cosa, con un terrore incontrollabile.
Lei ripeteva he wanted his daughter, who could not call and I said "But you're right, the girl is alright?" I kept in my broken English, she listened to me, shouting the name of his only daughter. Okay, I said, I call her now and I'll call, okay. Meanwhile
get dark. Finally we could hear: the mother was in Rome, but the despair and you could not understand that it happened. The daughter left the hospital at the precipice of Pisa and took the first train to Rome at night.
The next day I heard it: the poor woman had been taken for two days at sea with the child - like a big favor - by the owner, and then left in a subway station because they fend for myself to return by bus to L'Aquila. But a fight between police and the boys had caught her without a residence permit and no documents had been arrested along with the desperate and frightened, crying child calling his mother away. They had a son away for immediate return. The next day boarding plane to India.
The daughter had to do a day in a row at the Embassy to get a few minutes to see her mother and the child and ensure that at least traveling together.
Then he went back to L'Aquila (who thought more in the care of Pisa?) And together we took the ticket to India for her: once there, he would do all the proper documents to back together in Italy: she, the child, the husband and mother.
calculated the cost, I gave her the necessary and left. In a month she would return.
Time passed. No news. Telephone mute. I tried to call. Nothing.
the end of August a phone call: she was! Where? How it had happened?
"are in Lugoj," he said. "Lugo di Romagna in Italy?" I asked. "No, Lugoj in Romania. The little girl is dead. " "But that dci, you say?".
The child was dead in Lugoj, to stop the return trip from India to Italy. Until then everything had gone perfectly, the money was enough, documents in place. Everything, everything in a dream, a dream neighbor, a dream of a future life, health, fine.
Then the tragedy. For days the girl was no longer well, and slept and slept and that he had complained of sleep, but now it was close to Italy, he would have been a doctor, he would have cared if there was anything. calculated the cost, I gave her the necessary and left. In a month she would return.
Time passed. No news. Telephone mute. I tried to call. Nothing.
the end of August a phone call: she was! Where? How it had happened?
"are in Lugoj," he said. "Lugo di Romagna in Italy?" I asked. "No, Lugoj in Romania. The little girl is dead. " "But that dci, you say?".
The child was dead in Lugoj, to stop the return trip from India to Italy. Until then everything had gone perfectly, the money was enough, documents in place. Everything, everything in a dream, a dream neighbor, a dream of a future life, health, fine.
But the poor child had already suffered too much, its defense had not been destroyed rectum impact of India and the first infection had attacked. Meningitis is expected. She had gone out on tiptoe and barely touched by a life already full of hardships and terrors. She died in a foreign land, and little land to buy his little body had been due in the cemetery of Lugoj, a land concession for those who have little money, always full of water and mud.
But the twins always have pain in ambush. For the poor child's grandmother was a pain, and stronger than she went mad in two days. Was admitted to hospital in Lugoj and stayed there for months. At Christmas, he died. Had been crushed by guilt for having accepted the offer of the sea and all that followed, and the pain was all too much.
to come to Italy as he has not spoken to the couple stayed with those graves Lugoj their hearts were there and she was allowed to expired.
The health of both faltered, but hers was getting worse every day, his eyes lost vision, diabetes the stars, the pressure of her mind. And the little income that the husband could not pay to have the treatment. The misery and heartbreak for their child. Other children will never have because she can no longer deprived by fate in this bizarre.
do not know if there is someone up in heaven.
do not know if anyone see in the sky.
do not know if someone crying in the sky.
Or perhaps, in the sky does not look at anyone, do not cry no one, no one lives.
And the pain runs dry here on earth.
There are no more tears, no compassion.
Heaven and earth have more to do
July 30, 2008 Maria Grazia
Cinzio
do not know if anyone see in the sky.
do not know if someone crying in the sky.
Or perhaps, in the sky does not look at anyone, do not cry no one, no one lives.
And the pain runs dry here on earth.
There are no more tears, no compassion.
Heaven and earth have more to do
July 30, 2008 Maria Grazia
Cinzio
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