The time is ripe to celebrate our grandparents, an opportunity to look deeply into modern society and understand the relationship it shares with the elderly. Italy celebrates today the”elderly”, but the international Grandfather’s Day is “declared” on slightly different dates throughout the world: in the United States the national “Grandparents Day” is celebrated every year on the first Sunday of September, in the United Kingdom on the first Sunday of October, 25 th October in Canada. In France, Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s Day are celebrated separately each year.
There is a strong urge to rediscover the important value that the elderly have. It’s of no pure coincidence that the veil of indifference had to be lifted by none other than Pope Francis, who, on the occasion of the meeting held in preparation for “Grandparents” Day, which is being celebrated today, officially claimed as “inhumane” the violence practised against the elderly. “God will not forsake you,” said the Pontiff to 30 thousand representatives of the elderly who came to Rome from around the world – “you will continue to be remembered by your people.” And no less beautiful was the tribute paid by the Pontiff to former Pope Benedict XVI: “I have said many times that I would so much have liked him to live in the Vatican, because it would be like having a wise grandfather at home”.
The world of the”over-aged” narrates of stories of hope and unutterable cruelty. Like the one of Lilian Weber, whose bony fingers lightly glide along the sewing machine with mastery. Time is not to be wasted, for this elderly lady of Iowa. Dozens of young girls born in the most poverty-stricken parts throughout the world are awaiting her outfits, which are packed with the mastery that derives from almost one hundred years experience. Lilian is 99 years old, lives in America and considers her life as a mission. Many of her contemporaries in different parts of the world, firmly believe that by then, the time to dream has long passed. But she does not. She has decided to help others as long as she can endure it. So every morning when she gets up, she will examine a model to be made, will take the sufficient material and will get down to work in order to fulfil her quest: accomplish 1000 dresses by her 100th birthday! So far she has made nearly 900, which have been donated to her adopted granddauters through the Association of “Little Dresses for Africa”. Having passed a certain age, one is led to think that he has come to the end of his life circle. Lilian’s story tells us exactly the opposite: the spirit of life does not rust over time. On the contrary, we are expected to enhancing it every day, so that it does not go wasted.
But not always, does hope find the right path to proliferate. When in place of caresses, slaps are given, in place of a smile when they are hurled down against a bed and pulled by the hair, when their weakness is exploited against them, it becomes a strain even to carry on living. Recent stories from the last few months, splashed before our eyes, hurt deep down: horrors upon horrors, in an old age home in Terni, in a nursing home in Vaprio d’Adda Milan’s hinterland, then still another in Sanremo. And again Palermo, Catania. It is not a geographical issue; different places, same dramas: locked up in the bathroom for punishment, threatened, beaten, humiliated. Human baseness in these cases has touched rock bottom.
Noone is excluded. Each and everyone of us in the near future may find himself in a situation like this. According to a survey presented to the European Council, the average lifespan is set to grow by 15 to 20 years every second; in other words, for every three people, we are going to have working-age over 65. In Europe alone, elderly people will amount to over 62 million in the next forthcoming 30 years. They represent an invaluable resource and heritage to be enhanced. Lilian’s story teaches us how much energy and what unimaginable heights you can demand on yourself, even when about to turn a hundred. The tragedies in the ‘old-age lagers’ in turn are proof to what extent man is capable of destroying all hope and opportunities.
In short, it means we should choose in what type of world we wish to live in….
Translation provided by Marina Stronati