Diary from L'Aquila

So much work this month, good to create that mental exhaustion that brings sleep. The other night maybe I was sleeping or awake - the borderline is so cloudy - at Roseto on the Abruzzo coast, when the bed started to gently jump up and down - I waited for the sound of a train but no train was passing, so looked at the clock in the mobile screen and it read 22.59... The mobile rang at the same time, my daughter from L'Aquila was calling, a big quake again.

A little over 2 months after the big one, on 22 june a 4.5 Richter reminder that it is not over, it will never be over, no way to go back to the good old times, life will never be the same again. The new life will be accompanied by the awareness of the explosion, of the flood, of the accident, the unforeseen event that is just round the corner.

My new life this month was filled with closing the school year, driving back home every other day to wash clothes, proceed with moving books from a bookcase that will be dismantled, deciding where to put all the other things in other bookcases and wardrobes that must go as well for repairs to the walls to be made, worrying about my uncontrolled kids enjoying themselves at the campsite, with no rules, no chores, no homework to do. They have new lives as well, new friendships that started in their new temporary "home", keep in touch with old acquaintances through Facebook, wait for the lunch, wait for the dinner, meet friends, go to sleep, and the following day the same, no change from yesterday to tomorrow, no step forward anywhere.

Unless just surviving is a step forward.