Robert Musil claimed that passion is short-lived and that, above all, it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Are we sure? Because the story of Erminia Digianantonio seems to show the exact opposite of what the Austrian writer asserted. Born on November 1, 1919, she found the time at the dawn of her 107th year to submit a membership application, for the first time in her life, to a party. Which one? Brothers of Italy. The Fdi campaign reads «a commitment made before history» and who better than Mrs. Digianantonio, born in 1919, can embody this slogan. The story arrives on the desks of Libero from the Italy Association. Erminia, born a year after the end of the First World War, has lived through the 20th century. When she was born, the Prime Minister was Francesco Saverio Nitti and today she has reached the first female premier Giorgia Meloni. It seems like a century has passed, actually it flew by. For a couple of years she has had hearing problems, but she is still very much present so much so that in the nursing home that hosts her she asked to have a polling station installed to vote. And every time, until the last elections, the commission had to intervene to allow her to cast her vote.
A CENTURY (AND BEYOND)
The story is told to us by her son, Paolo Cucurachi. «We are two brothers born on August 1, 1945, in the cradle we witnessed the atomic bombings in Japan». But tell us about your mother. «She is originally from Carnia, precisely from Trasaghis in the province of Udine. She lived between Trieste, Gorizia, Lecce and after my father’s death in 1988 she came to live with me in Tuscany near Pisa». A recent or long-standing interest in politics? «My father was a finance officer so he never had party memberships and so my mother adapted. Yet she has always shown interest in that political direction». The right wing? «She has an idol, namely Almirante. Imagine that when he spoke on television she glued herself to the screen and it was impossible to distract her. Now she closely follows Meloni’s footsteps». But did she get the membership card? «She got it in recent days, they told us that they should deliver it to us electronically soon. Now she can no longer hear, we communicate in writing and yet she still reads without glasses. She is a great talker, she talks about everything». She will remember the Twenty Years. «She says that at the time there was no delinquency and that young people were more upright. She still calls Mussolini His Excellency, but she criticized him saying that he also did some not nice things. And she remembers the partisans».
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Anecdotes? «When she was engaged to my father, in 1944, the Titini in Friuli wanted to cut her hair, but she made them run away. She would have been willing to be killed rather than have her head shaved. Then she saw two finance officers being slaughtered, when she lived in the barracks at the end of the war. They were only 19 years old…». A woman of courage. «Imagine that for the birth she went alone to the emergency room in Trieste taking the trolleybus». Does she still have wishes? «She would like to meet Meloni, of course she doesn’t hear well, maybe receive a letter». A woman of many resources. «Once a week I take her to a restaurant and she still drinks. I try to dilute her wine with water, but she doesn’t want it». A centenarian passionate like her contemporary from Greve in Chianti, in the province of Florence, Silvana Pini who also renewed her Democratic Party membership card this year. Mrs. Pini’s dream? As told to the columns of Repubblica, to meet Elly Schlein. Actually a photo. «I would have a wish: I would really like to take a picture with her». On one side the Missino legacy, on the other the communist one. Stories in the maze of Italy’s tales that converge in the 1946 election, the first time women could express their vote in national history. Both chose the republic.
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