Story #20 - Maria
Maria Scandurra, Pordenone, Italy - remembering Alfio
Recently, I told Alfio’s sad story. I met him two years ago in Italy, during one of my visits home.
Friends mentioned to me a man with a strong link with nature who fell in love with going slow. It was a philosophy of life, an attitude contrasting with our current times, where people are always on the go, with so many things to do, pretending all of them to be essential.
As a concrete gesture of embracing slow-life, Alfio chose a donkey as a companion for his errands. Literally. Forced to follow its slow steps. And at the same time, with the opportunity to admire what surrounds you in nature.
Alfio Scandurra, Giugno 2021
One year later, I had discovered that, unfortunately, Alfio had passed away from a violent disease.
You can read my blog post here.
For some strange coincidence, a few weeks ago, my parents met Maria, Alfio’s mum, and showed her my blog post on the phone. She was touched but didn’t get the meaning of a text written in English.
I decided to print some of the pictures, produce one of my zines and translate some impressions of my meeting with Alfio into Italian. I mailed everything to Maria, and she appreciated it very much. It is always lovely when our pictures leave the screen and reach our protagonists, our heroes. That is why we produce images, after all.
Maria wanted to meet me and learn more about my exchange with Alfio.
It wasn’t easy for her. She has been through a tough time.
“When you lose a son, a part of you is detached. You cannot find any reasons. It just hurts so much.”
She started collecting memories, testimonies, and messages that still reach Alfio’s Facebook page and mobile phone. His life has inspired many people, and she believes that there is a legacy in Alfio’s approach to life.
Testimonies, June 2023
She showed me the oak tree planted in his honour to remember Alfio and to find, ideally, a place in the nature where people that wants to connects with him can go.
“Oak trees are known for their excellent adaptation capacity. Their growth is very slow, but they can reach more than thirty meters high and have always inspired admiration and respect.”
Or the collection of little stones in her apartment, with a sign of hearts, left by friends and acquaintances, people that she not even know.
Maria started a book to get all these testimonies together. She transcripts Facebook messages, texts, and voice messages addressed to Alfio. She attaches photographs or newspaper cuts. It is a sort of bullet journal.
These messages give hope to Maria and heal, a little bit, her pain and suffering. She feels comfort when recurrent feedback from people indicate that Alfio left a profound trace in their life.
“Dear friend,
I feel like you’re with us, in the next room, busy doing something important.
You left a presence filling the space of memory and time.
I am grateful for what you have sown in your earthly path.
I never met you, yet it’s like I knew you.
As the saying says: “To live in the hearts of those who remain means not to know death”
I am so happy some of my pictures will help Maria build a legacy for her son, keeping a vivid memory of a constant presence.
Maria Scandurra, giugno 2023
