Goodbye to Italia

Stop! Take Stock and Move On

Writing my first book, I remember at times wondering if I could possibly do justice to my Italian mum and dad’s incredible WW2 survival story. Sometimes, even when the words flowed, I’d re-read those outpourings out loud—a great tip to make sense of what you’ve written—and wonder what I had been trying to convey. The process, thereafter, of editing and re-structuring was time consuming and even annoying; it also played up my self-doubts. For writing comes from our creative side; it is unfettered, and just like a child, we must push behind us our negativity and start afresh with each attempt. In a nutshell, we must find an eagerness to just keep living, writing, being! After my mum—a 9-year-old at the time—and her nonna had survived a bizarre shooting in their apartment block by Italian partisans looking for traitors, both reacted very differently. Nonna was overcome by the experience and no doubt, her mind was focusing on how everything could have gone so wrong. Little Mariolina however, is ready to move on; she is living in, and for the moment. We each need to encourage that simplistic (not simple) approach so relishing each achievement and continuously moving forward.