Dear
Mummy,
it
was just a year ago, in the afternoon, when your breathing ceased.
Ironically, just a little before it happened, physicians were
appreciating some improvement in your condition, for the first time
since a week before.
Your
heartbeat ceased ; but it didn't happen all at once. Those who
didn't go through this, or perhaps got a wrong idea from movies, or
by listening at some naive simpleton touting about ''sweet death'',
could believe it's all so easy and painless; but things are very
different, actually.
If
only they could figure out how strongly, how tenaciously our body
clings to the faintest heartbeat, grasps to the lightest breath, to
the smallest vital parameters, they would probabily stop to talk
nonsense ... yet we still have to hear such things, and much more.
So,
after some still unyielding jumps had shaken your
electrocardiogram's line on six good instances, at last they declared
you ''officially'' dead.
As
Daddy, Grandpa and all of us had always denied the idea of the death
as the unescapable End of All, rather looking at it as an
''illness'' to be cured, a 'Problem to be solved', sooner or later,
we strived to put your body in a safe place, in order to protect you
against death's outrageous ravage.
When
in some twenty -at most thirty - years from now, you will open your
eyes again (people say I'm being too much optimistic, but I rebut
they're the pessimists instead), I strongly hope you will find Dad
Dino at your side.
Dad
is not in a ''safe place'' yet , but we trust we'll be able to work
out a solution for him, too.
When
your body will be ''working'' again, the World will be for sure a
better place, than it is today. We will be endowed with the help of
robots of every size and shape, and they will assist you in any of
your everyday's tasks; the smallest of them, the so-called
''nanobots'', will be actually the ones to awaken you at life, by
repairing any of the countless harms and damages your body had had to
suffer, so heavily that it was forced to stop - but just temporarily-
its functions.
When
you will be awake again, people around will reassure you, by telling
that you simply went through a somewhat deeper sleep, as you had felt
a bit sick.
Perhaps
you will experience some difficulties in remembering things, but
dont' worry, some expert cognitive psychologists will be at your side
to help you. Bearing this in our mind, we had kept filming you for
hours, for days, at home and elsewhere, as these data could help you
to rebuild your whole memory.
Although
we hope for the opposite, it's quite likely that some malicious
people will be there too, showing you old newspapers and telling
about you having been deep-frozen, your body sent to a foreign
country, far from your motherland. All of that, just for the wicked
sake of traumatizing, of upsetting you.
Such
bad people wouldn't know you altogether. They couldn't ever image
how tough mummy Cecilia's temperament is, and they ignore that
nothing could really upset you.
But
it will be Dad and me, telling you the whole story.
And
I can figure what your reaction will be : a loud laughter!
The
same kind of laughter you used to make to me everytime I told you
about something amazing, unbelievable, or even simply comical.
A
loud, joyful laughter, of course ; after I tell you that I was
invited as a guest at Sky channel studios, with one of your favorite
tv anchormen interviewing me about your case, asking me about you,
while broadcasting pictures of you, pictures that people in the whole
world could see.... By the way, I tell you right now : keep yourself
ready! You could find yourself facing with people, that will treat
you as a ''celebrity''.
People
you never heard of will turn to you and ask '' But you're Cecilia,
the First....?"
-In
a short time, many people will be doing the same thing you did.
And
they could do the same thing right here, at much lower prices;
perhaps, going down to -196 Celsius degrees will prove un-necessary,
too - but that's another story.
You
know how Italians are, don't you? It takes some time for them to
start to run, but once they've started... do you remember our long
talks about Science, don't you...?
Italians
could perhaps look dumb compared to some other people, lost in
trifles and frivolities all the time; but this isn't their actual
nature.
Let's
just think of Electricity : Volta, an Italian, discovered it,
together with Galvani, another Italian scientist. Still another
Italian, Pacinotti, discovered the way to make actual use of it, by
conceiving the first electric motor in the world, and Colombo (not
Cristoforo - I mean Giovanni Colombo, an engineer) was the first in
the world -except than for America- to produce it.
You
will see, even in coping with the ''little problem'' of death, we
Italians will be able to stand up tall!
See
you soon, Mom... and please, remember to cook for me a donut of
yours, the ones I go crazy for!
I
love you, Mom.
