Is the law equal for all?

The exciting story of a visit postponed for over two years

It's been two years since our last meeting. That day we still did not know that a global pandemic was coming that would upset our habits. We said goodbye with the love of all time, with the usual smiles, hugs, caresses, and with every gesture that would allow us to tell about our complicity.

Rosella repeated the same question insistently: "When are you coming back?" and then she sought my hand as if to hold me back. Mario, slightly on the sidelines, waited for my eyes to meet his and, when it happened, he whispered to take the last souvenir photo of the day, and he kept repeating it until the moment when Elisa and I crossed with the car parking gate. Rosella, Alessandra, Vittoria, Teresa, Roberto, Raffaella and Antonello, as if they were children, continued to send us kisses from behind the windows opacified by their breaths. To prove that I saw them, I repeatedly honked the horn, until we took the road in the woods and the shelter that hosts them disappeared from my rearview mirror. I love going to the Community of Smiles of Cuasso al Monte, it is a magical place, not only for its location within one of the most beautiful beech woods of the 5 Vette Park, but mainly because I always receive so much beauty from its guests. The Community deals with cognitive disabilities and welcomes eight adult patients on a permanent basis. It is simply a large extended family of which Elisa and I, a very dear friend of mine, now feel part of it.

When we go to visit them, we talk, play, sing, dance, laugh and joke, and believe me the hours go by so quickly that every time I realize that I have upset the appointments of my agenda only after leaving that house. Unfortunately, Covid has penalized them too, and perhaps much more than one might think. Because if it is true that today one of the greatest concerns of professionals on this issue is the future psychological damage that could affect a large part of the population, imagine what could happen to patients who are already pathological, for whom the lockdown is still ongoing. And while we are fighting over issues such as the vaccine, the mask, the violated freedom, the health dictatorship, my friends from the Community of Smiles, like so many others in thousands and thousands of communities located in our country, as well as the elderly in the nursing homes, they cannot go out, except in truly exceptional cases. Let's try to imagine having to undergo such a treatment, and moreover without being able to say anything. How would we feel? What would we think? What damage could it cause to our body and mind? Being a cognitively disabled, or a not very independent elderly person, does not mean not having feelings, indeed very often it is just the opposite, and for this reason I suffer at the very thought that these people are forced to undergo such extreme treatment because of others. I do not want to argue with those who, without any competence, exhort not to get vaccinated, or with those who believe that the mask is a useless imposition, or those who think that it is all a conspiracy, or those who do not even recognize the existence of Covid, and the I would not want to raise controversy even with those who are vaccinated forgetting that the world does not end out of the backyard, but it is evident that all these categories of people have common symptoms, the origin of which belongs to an even more dangerous virus than Covid which is called selfishness. The law is equal for all?

I have dealt with selfishness in other articles and I don't want to be repetitive but let me do it with just one sentence: freedom means making the right choice and not always doing what we like. Returning to my friends from the Community of Smiles, fortunately this year, near Christmas, the management gave them a quick snack around the skating rink set up in the village for the holidays. A tea, a slice of pandoro, a little music and nothing else but more than enough to make them experience a special afternoon.

They arrived on the Community minibus and, like every time they walk around the town, they walked close to each other, as if they were making strength together, and slowly they reached me. I read joy in every look and so much happiness in seeing each other again. Mario asked us for dozens of photos, Rosella demanded that we tell her what we had done in the time we didn't see each other, Alessandra always laughed, like Teresa, Raffaella, Vittoria. Roberto, on the other hand, I never saw him laugh, it was never a characteristic of her, but her glances told all of her happiness. We had a snack, and then we danced, immediately eliminating every hour of separation between us, and starting from that afternoon two years ago as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Every now and then someone pointed out that the best gift for this Christmas would be to make Covid disappear forever, so as to allow them to continue dancing, or even simply because they wanted to go back to town another time. Mario greeted us asking if we would have the photos printed and Rosella booked a copy of all of them. We didn't hug but we wanted to.

On Christmas Eve we kept our promise and in the afternoon we appeared in the community garden. We could not enter: we outside, they inside. We greeted each other through the window panes. The first one who saw us was Rosella, but after a few seconds the windows had no space to accommodate the other onlookers. Despite the feeling of seeing them live as if they were in an aquarium, we were able to show them the small photo album that we had prepared with such care, and there is no word that can describe the emotion they transmitted to us.

Rosella asked us when we would be back. Mario to take the last photo. All the others continued to send us kisses, even blowing on our hand to make them reach us, and they did so until the car came out of the gate. I blew the horn several times to greet them once again and then we took the road into the woods, full of new beauty.

Let's try to imagine having to undergo the treatment reserved for the guests of the communities and RSAs without being able to say anything. How would we feel?

Freedom means making the right choice and not always doing what we want

Max Laudadio

NP Gennaio 2022