To a Wonderful Woman

I would have liked to start this year telling you all about the hand made gifts I prepared for my family and friends last Christmas, unfortunately something occurred to change my plans.

Few days ago my beloved auntie passed away, so suddenly, even if she was unwell for such a long time, affected by the ravages of Alzheimer disease her memory was slowly fading away, but her sweet smile never ceased to light her face whenever she met my eyes.

When we were little children we used to spend all the summer school holidays at my grandparents’ house where my aunt Mariannina lived, it was at that time that my brother started to call her “zia mamma” “auntie-mum” because she really meant something special to us.

Going out with her was always a great experience, she allowed us to do little things that our parents always deny, often you'd have two little children shouting out of a car window to the cyclists along the road, "you're the last, looser!!", we laugh so hard with her as she lead us in high jinks.

She was a woman who really taught me to be brave, ok maybe she was not very successful with me in particular, certainly if I ever climbed a tree is thanks to her. She was always extremely positive and supportive, she never let you down, always present, always extremely generous and always able to make you feel special, at least for her.

After breaking my leg when skying, I will never forget that she was next to me when I woke up from an operation, even if she herself had an operation few days before, she traveled from Rimini to Rome, when not being well herself, to hold my hand and I will never forget that kind and generous spirit.

She was unconventional for her age, she got a degree in Pharmacy when women rarely reached university education, she was driving when very few women had a driving licence, importantly what she really left was a mark in the life of whoever she met, glowing with her bright and sweet smile.

She decided to change her career into teaching Maths and Sciences, something she did so well that people decades after being her students, when meeting her would still addressing her with a “ciao Prof”. My small regret is that I wish I had such a good Math teacher I wouldn’t be so mathematically challenged now.
I was always reprimanding myself on my efforts to calculate simple formula, telling this to her she would always smile back to me, her sweet smile, with a little melancholy in the later years.

I will miss everything about her, during the later years when the disease had left only a shadow of her full beauty and brightness, her eyes of an indefinite colour between green and light brown, expressed more of her unbound love than what she was actually able to speak out...

ciao my adorated Auntie Mum