Love to be love…

Eleonora lives in a small village on the outskirts of Turin together with her daughter Sara and her two granddaughters aged 6 and 8. Separated her, separated her daughter, over her years they have always helped and supported each other.

Eleonora raised her granddaughters by being a grandmother and a mother, until Sara begins an emotional relationship and her partner moves in with them. The house becomes too small for everyone. The complaints and arguments begin. Eleonora feels too much and is invited to find another housing solution.

But he doesn't have a house and he doesn't have a pension yet. For some time she settles in the garage at home, but then she is forced to leave there too. During the day, to stay warm and spend the day, she finds a corner in a large shopping center and in the evening, when it closes, she moves to the bench just outside. A lady sees her in that situation and takes her to her house.

She places a cot in the hall and hosts it for a few nights, alerting social services. We met Eleonora 5 months ago. She is a petite, delicate woman, essential in being and in dressing. With her gentle, reserved and silent manner of hers, she immediately won everyone's heart. In reception she finds a little stability of her own and, swallowing the improbable about her, she decides to get back in touch with her daughter, making herself available again for her nieces: picking them up from school and preparing the lunch for them. Every day she walks up to Porta Nuova, then from there 40 minutes by train. In the evening again. Every day, all winter long, even when the disease begins to show signs of her, which she neglects despite the fatigue she feels.

In her heart and in her thoughts, only the desire to love those two little girls always at the center of her every thought and word.

Eleonora in these last months of her life has gone through many hardships and difficulties, the sense of abandonment, loneliness... Yet nothing, no betrayal, has hindered her in the good that she wanted to bring to her nieces. I use Cristina's words to tell you: «Dear Eleonora, it was an honor to meet you, I learned from you that when life challenges you, you don't need a powerful physique or a loud voice, but you need stubbornness, not giving up and the strength of a laughter even if it is hoarse". And with those of Sara: "I learned from you that it is in silence that care for others grows". Thank you Eleonora because you showed us how stubborn and determined love must learn to be in order to be Love.

Simona Pagani

NP Maggio 2023