L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 4 MARIELLA RADAELLI NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Memories of Covid-19: dead in Italy will long rustle like leaves I n Waiting for Godot b y S a m u e l Beckett, Vladimir, one of the two main c h a r a c t e r s i n t h e existential play, suggests that the voice of the dead makes a noise like wings, like sand, like feathers, like a s h e s . B u t e a c h t i m e Estragon, the co-protago- nist, replies: "Like leaves." Vladimir and Estragon, two homeless men in post- World War II Europe, are haunted by those voices they w i s h n o t t o h e a r . A l l t h e dead voices are the sound of t h e l e a v e s r u s t l i n g . T h e pains of war, long after the battle, echo in a tree right there. It sprouted leaves the n i g h t b e f o r e . I t m u s t b e spring. On May 4, Italy entered the second phase of its coro- navirus restrictions as a new government decree replaced t h e s t r i c t l o c k d o w n r u l e s t h a t h a d b e e n i n p l a c e nationwide for more than seven weeks. Some 4 million people returned to work. And while some liberties are back, including going to a bookstore and exercising outdoors, freedom of move- m e n t r e m a i n s l i m i t e d . Caution and prudence can save our lives these torrid days. On the contrary, the pic- t u r e s t h a t l a s t w e e k appeared in the newspapers of a fast crowd gathering on t h e N a v i g l i d i s t r i c t o f Milan along the canals at t h e a p e r i t i v o h o u r w e r e " s h a m e f u l , " s a i d M i l a n M a y o r G i u s e p p e S a l a , who delivered an ultimatum to those citizens whose pri- o r i t y i n l i f e s e e m s t o b e e v e n i n g e n t e r t a i n m e n t . "Either things change right n o w , o r I w i l l h a v e t h e access points to the canals shut down," he shouted in anger. He stressed that the city needs to get back up on its feet. "I support those who go to work and struggle to make ends meet, not those w h o h a v e f u n . I w i l l n o t allow a few rowdy people without a mask next to each other to question this." People are still dying. We are still vulnerable to the v i r u s . I s n ' t t h a t c l e a r enough? On Saturday, May 9, the overall death toll linked to COVID-19 rose to 30,395. T o o m a n y v i c t i m s o f COVID-19 silently fell away like leaves from the tree of life in a storm that ripped through the country starting from February 21 when we began to navigate a surreal new world. Too many Italians had s o m e b o d y i n t h e f a m i l y whose body was burned to ashes. The spirit that died is n o t j u s t o f t h e o n e w h o passed away but also the sons, daughters, wives, hus- b a n d s , o r g r a n d c h i l d r e n who remain. The relatives had no armor against the ravages of sudden separation. The survivors have a dying voice within, reaching out somewhere, t o i l i n g i n t h e m o r a l s o f despair. O n t h e e v e o f " P h a s e T w o , " a m e m b e r o f t h e Italian Parliament said that " i f t h e B e r g a m o d e a d could talk, they would tell us to reopen the country." The deceased, not only the ones in the hardest-hit city of Bergamo, cannot talk. We also cannot put words in a dead man's mouth. We can only speak to a dead loved one. We can feel their p r e s e n c e l i k e a s o o t h i n g balm to our agitated spirit that misses them. Too many families are dragged down to the regions of darkness. S o m e a r e a s k i n g G o d f o r strength, that they might achieve. I n M a r c h a n d A p r i l , although a priest was still available to bless the body, the absence of funerals was especially hard for the fami- lies. "Coping with the lack of funeral was a further trau- matic experience," said psy- c h o l o g i s t I s a b e l l a Cinquegrana. "The funeral is a rite of passage that also allows the family to emo- tionally close a chapter, to prepare for the farewell and slowly begin reworking the loss. It is much more diffi- cult to grieve alone." A t t h e M o n u m e n t a l Cemetery in Bergamo, the burials were performed at the pace of one every a half- hour. Those days, the daily o b i t u a r y s e c t i o n o f t h e L'Eco di Bergamo news- paper grew from just over one to 10 to 12 pages. The tragic lists not only regis- tered the old and the elderly couples who die just hours apart but also doctors, pho- tographers, salesmen, police officers, entrepreneurs, and b l u e - c o l l a r w o r k e r s l i k e Diego, a healthy man in his 40s who transported fridges to supermarkets. T o m e , e a c h d e a t h ' s notice was like a short poem i n t h e S p o o n R i v e r Anthology by American w r i t e r E d g a r L e e Masters, who told of the injustice done in a small m i d - w e s t t o w n w i t h t o o many deaths. People died lonely deaths in isolation units and their next of kin grieved alone, a loneliness that is now mak- Milan's Navigli as they used to be: buzzing with people: It may take a while to see them like this again (Photo: Dreamstime) Continued to page 6

• Cover