English Italiano

Diary from L'Aquila

14 july 2009 - The shoes

This is a story told by the father of a young girl, a story of love and memory, one among the thousands of stories that survivors tell each other to ease the pain, exorcise the sudden fury that changed our lives forever, and accept the destiny against which nothing more can be done, while so much can be done in remembering all the fine moments that made our lost companions so precious.

Some months before the earthquake this young girl fell in love with a pair of sneakers, a well-known brand, and asked her daddy if she could have them. The price was well over 100 euros, and the father at first resisted, telling her it was exaggerate, she would grow and would use the shoes a short time. But then he thought, what the hell, she never asked for anything like that, she wants them so much, so she gave her the money to buy the sneakers.

The girl came back that evening without the shoes, and the father asked why, and she said she had realized it was too much, she did not want to spend the hard-earned money of her family. But the father told her she must buy the shoes, since she wanted them so much at first, otherwise she would always think of them and be sorry. So finally the shoes were bought, and she put them on, showed them off to her friends, and was happy. And he is so happy now that she bought them.

When the earthquake night came, the vault of her bedroom fell on her, the father tried to get her out of the ruins, but though it was the most important thing in his life to do, he was not able to lift the roof with his hands. Only an hour and a half later they could take the girl out, her young life gone with the so many others.

But the salt of life, the love and passion connected to the shoes, did not go. He keeps her shoes as the greatest treasure, one next to the other, and no one can touch them, nothing ever will take away the memory of his young girl happy for her new pair of shoes.