The precipice of love

Mariangela Tarì is a support teacher, but above all she is a mother: her two children, Sofia and Bruno, are both seriously ill; Sofia is a disabled child and needs continuous care, Bruno was struck by a brain tumor. Hard, painful experiences that deeply mark.

Starting from 2018, Mariangela decided to tell her story, which took shape in the book The precipice of love: "The pretext is to tell the story of a family that twice faces two tragedies and the whole human soul is inside; it is the path I personally took in order not to jump off that precipice. It is not a book about pain, the two painful events are two elements of the story, but it is a book about life, it is a book that tells the life that goes through this pain: a happiness understood as a sudden accident, a path to reach happiness despite everything".

Since she was little, Mariangela was used to writing scattered thoughts in her numerous diaries.

She defines her experience of her as "notes of a mother", who - like many parents - finds herself living very intense days and carving out a few moments to think and find meaning in the things she experienced. "It is the love that saved me, the love of life, that pushes you towards the other and pushes others towards you. Writing I counted my fortunes, because I realized how many people have been close to us; many times everything is taken for granted, in reality we would never have done it alone ".

Last year she was awarded by President Mattarella with the honor of Knight of the Order of Merit for her precious, intense and passionate testimony of the daily difficulties related to the condition of family caregiver.

Entering such profound experiences is like looking out at the gates of a mystery, where love and pain are sometimes sides of the same coin, where you meet people who make sickness an opportunity. It is not easy at all, but a testimony like that of Mariangela, as well as intense and passionate, is convincing, because she has the flavor of a life lived alive.

Roberto Lerda
NP Maggio 2022