Tuesday 21 December 2021

I lost my "faith"

The title of this post is somehow misleading... but it would not if I wrote it in Italian!
The word "fede" (faith), in Italian indicates not only a religious commitment, or a loyalty to someone. It also indicates the wedding ring.

I have no religious "faith" to loose (I'm agnostic), but I had the wedding ring Alberto gave me when we married... and now I cannot find it anywhere!
I'm quite sure I lost it at home, but I searched in every corner of the house, to no avail.

I feel lost myself without it.
I feel that, without that ring at my finger, when I'll die I'll be incomplete.
Does it make any sense?


Edit: on the night between January 1st and 2nd I found my "faith", under a cupboard. I feel I found a little, but important, bit of myself.

Thursday 14 October 2021

Tuesday 5 October 2021

To sleep... To die...

I am very tired, mentally, so please accept my apologies for any mistake in this entry.

It's been almost a year since Nedda, my mum, had a stroke that rendere her unable to speak and to do a lot of other daily things (eating, going tonthe bathroom...) without help.
Another side effect of her stroke has been her sleeplessness - she sleeps only for less than one to three hours and then wakes up, stays awake for the same amount of time then sleep again, repeating the cycle all day and night, every single day.

Bottom line - it's been almost one year that I can't have a good eight-hours sleep! And since I am not capable of getting some rest for less than that amount of time, I am virtually awake all day (=24 hours) long!

I am no longer living my half a life. I am just dragging myself on, trying not to give in (or my mum will be cared for by no one else).

I feel like a battery out of juice, barely able to think or focus. I just can cook, clean the house, and wait for my mum next need.
The caregivers who had helped and are helping me with Nedda do not give me relief anymore, and even when they did it was just for a few hours every week.

There is some hope at the end of this (another one!) tunnel - my mum will be transferred to a nursing home. But this could happen in months, even years from now.
And I'm afraid I'll be an amoeba by then because I already lost any interest in finding a job, going to conventions and get-alongs, watching the new Star Trek or Doctor Who series, having plans and projects for the house and everything Alberto owned. These things have no appeal to me anymore, despite I often say the opposite to family and friends.

I feel more dead than alive, sensing that if I was truly dead I'd be better off. At least I'd sleep!
And I'll be with Alberto again!



Thursday 12 August 2021

Alberto: un altro compleanno mancato

Quest'anno avresti avuto caldo, molto caldo...
Ma preferirei averti accanto in carne ed ossa in questo mondo in fiamme che saperti sepolto nel gelo della morte.
Buon compleanno, amore mio.

Sunday 13 June 2021

14 giugno

To cut a very long story short... We got married on the day we first met.
Every day I miss Alberto more than the day before - I don't know hiw much more pain I'll be able to endure...

Friday 19 March 2021

2999 almost 3000

Too many days. Too many nights. Without Alberto.
Sadness, despair, loneliness... words that don't even begin to express what I feel.

Sunday 7 March 2021

To be or not to be

I must not... I cannot... I don't want to commit suicide... but, please, let me dream of going to sleep one night and wake up no more. Let me wish to shuffle away my mortal coil and end my troubles. 

"To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd."

I must not commit suicide because this would go against all Alberto believed in. Even in his and ours darkest days he was always optimistic. 
Furthermore, I have no religious belief, but I don't discard the possibility that one of them could be true (I have no proofs either way), so, if Heaven and Hell exists, Alberto is not in Hell and by committing suicide I will end up in Hell thus never see Alberto again!

I cannot commit suicide. I don't want surviving friends and family to suffer and mourn the way I suffered and mourned since the day Alberto died. I don't want them to face the practical consequences of my departure.
Also I have a duty of care for my mother that, even if I am not really able to fulfill it as I should, I cannot avoid. I'm trying to get help in this regards, but finding a caregiver is prooving nearly impossible.

I do not want to commit suiside, because even if I have no dreams, no ambitions, no future opportunities anymore, I want to be a witness to the positive things that are happening in the world nowadays - my niece Isobel career, Perseverance exploration of Mars, Greta and her Fridays for Future movement, Samantha Cristoforetti next mission to the ISS, Elon Musk and his paving the progress with electric cars and space faring, Spot and its robotics friends at Boston Dynamics multiplying... to name just a few.

So, don't worry. I'll be around as long as I can. Now you know why.

------------------

Translation for my Italian followers:

Non devo ... Non posso ... Non voglio suicidarmi ... ma, per favore, fatemi sognare di andare a dormire una notte per svegliarmi più. Lasciatemi desiderare di disfarmi delle mie spoglie mortali per porre fine ai miei guai.

"Morire, dormire…
nient'altro, e con un sonno dire che poniamo fine
al dolore del cuore e ai mille tumulti naturali
di cui è erede la carne: è una conclusione
da desiderarsi devotamente."

Non devo suicidarmi perché questo andrebbe contro tutto ciò in cui Alberto credeva. Anche nei suoi e nei nostri giorni più bui era sempre ottimisto.
Inoltre, non ho un fede religiosa, ma non scarto la possibilità che una di esse possa essere vera (non ho prove in nessun caso), quindi, se il Paradiso e l'Inferno esistono, Alberto non è all'Inferno e suicidandomi io finirò all'Inferno non rivedendo quindi mai più Alberto!

Non posso suicidarmi. Non voglio che amici e famiglia che mi sopravvivranno soffrano e piangano come ho sofferto e pianto dal giorno in cui è morto Alberto. Non voglio che affrontino le conseguenze pratiche della mia dipartita.
Inoltre devo prendermi cura di mia madre, un dovere che, anche se non sono davvero in grado di adempierlo come dovrei, non posso evitare; sto cercando di ottenere aiuto in questo senso, ma trovare un* badante si sta dimostrando quasi impossibile.

Non voglio suicidarmi, perché anche se non ho più sogni, ambizioni, né opportunità future, voglio essere testimone delle cose positive che stanno accadendo nel mondo oggi - la carriera di mia nipote IsobelPerseverance e la sua esplorazione di Marte, Greta e il suo movimento Fridays for Future, la prossima missione sulla ISS di Samantha Cristoforetti, Elon Musk e le sue strade verso il progresso con auto elettriche e viaggi spaziali, Spot e i suoi amici robot della Boston Dynamics che prolificano... per citarne solo alcune.

Quindi non preoccupatevi. Sarò qui il più a lungo possibile. E ora sapete il perché.


Wednesday 3 March 2021

664

It's been 664 days from the abrupt end of my last vacation. I cannot blame the Covid_19 pandemic as the reason for "aborting the mission", but only myself and my extreme sense of duty and care.
I wish I was a little more egoistic sometimes...
But I'm not, thus that aborted vacation will be the last of my healthy half-a-life. 

Sunday 28 February 2021

2980

I'm thinking things that I should not think. I will not act on these thoughts, but my mind keeps wondering... 

Saturday 2 January 2021

A message in Italian to STIC-AL members




Ciao a tutti. 
Sarò breve, ma risponderò a tutte le domande che vorrete farmi. Vi prego solo, fin da ora, di avere pazienza: le giornate passano con continue interruzioni e più spesso che no ho a disposizione al massimo mezz'ora per "me" (giorno o notte che sia). 

Ritiro la mia candidatura al Ponte di Comando dello STIC-AL. Non sono più in grado di impegnarmi per il Club. 

Finché dovrò badare a mia mamma (e le auguro ancora molti anni di vita) non potrò pensare ad altro. 

Mi spiace, perché rimettermi in gioco era l'unica spinta a farmi andate avanti, ma tant'è... ora ho responsabilità più grandi a cui pensare. 
E per parafrasare Ilia... le parole "io" e "mio" non hanno più significato nel mio vocabolario.

Grazie a chiunque mi avrebbe votato.

i wish I was there...

... wherever "there" is, providing it's with you, Alberto.