Every day is like this. Dona Adelia Senestro, 90 years old, is brought to the balcony all dressed up and, armed with her binoculars, she monitors whether the flowers in the garden of the condominium where she lives are growing well.
Were they watered correctly? Are they growing? Have the new plants already flowered? These are the questions that must be answered, quarantined or not. “I find this attention to detail impressive,” comments grandson Fabio Giorgio Cavallero, 35 years old. “Like many other elderly people, my grandmother continues to cling to life even in the smallest things,” he says.
Born in Saluzzo, in the Piedmont region, but Saviglianese at heart, grandmother Adelia – mother of two children and grandmother of two grandchildren – has always been passionate about nature, hiking in the mountains and traveling.
That's why, says her nephew, she has these binoculars: “she took them on walks in the mountains, to see the marmots and birds”. Now that the walks are just a distant memory, he cultivates his passion as best he can: from a distance, to avoid risks, but without giving up his daily consultation with the flowers. “She has her own routine. And then it will change”, says the proud and fun grandson, to reporter Chiara Severgnini, from Couriers.
Dona Adelia's quarantine began well before the Prime Minister's restrictions Giuseppe Conte to protect Italy against the coronavirus pandemic: a heart problem forced the elderly woman into a wheelchair a few weeks after her 90th birthday, celebrated in December.
The family had given a trip to Paris as a gift to nonna, but it will remain in the drawer.
“For her, who is such an active woman, staying at home is a huge sacrifice,” says her grandson. “Until recently, my grandmother still drove her car, and when she was 88, she got on a plane and came alone to visit me in Athens, where I lived,” recalls Cavallero.
