ALZANO LOMBARDO, Italy (AP) – Emotions are rising this holiday season at the Martino Zanchi Foundation nursing home in northern Italy, near Bergamo, after months of almost total isolation for its residents.
Celestina Comotti, a long-time resident, did not believe when a staff member read aloud a Christmas greeting from a family looking at her expectantly for a video call.
“Damn!” Comotti exclaimed when the nursing home staff confirmed that his sweethearts, nine-year-old Simon, his sister Marta and mother Alessia, were people he had never met. The 81-year-old woman dissolved in tears.
“I’m shaking,” he said, adjusting his glasses.
Despite a desolate year marked by death and loneliness, the spirit of the holidays descends on the Zanchi nursing home, one of the first in Italy to close its doors to visitors after the COVID-19 case was confirmed. at the nearby hospital on February 23rd.
The bearers of good news were the so-called “Santa’s grandchildren,” people who responded to a charity’s call to spread joy to residents of nursing homes, many of whom live far from their families. or they have no family member left.
The program “Santa’s grandchildren” reaches its third edition. Last year it coincided with 2,550 “grandchildren” with residents of 91 residences. This year, 5,800 gifts have been sent to 228 nursing homes across the country, an outpouring that is partly a reaction to the devastating toll the coronavirus has had on seniors, comprising most of the 70,000 COVID-19s. deaths confirmed by Italy. .
This was the first year of the Zanchi old people’s home participating in the “Santa’s grandchildren” program. The town of Alzano Lombardo, where the house is located, was one of the hardest hit in the province of Bergamo, where Italy’s first cases of internally transmitted coronavirus infections that caused the deadly wave were discovered. spring of the country.
Michela Valle, coordinator of home activities, said her goal was not so much to fulfill Italian holiday gift wishes, but to “create bonds”. The program matched benefactors with 43 Zanchi residents this season. Valle hopes that one day, when the pandemic will subside substantially, there will be face-to-face meetings.
Recipients wore Santa hats during virtual tours with their volunteer grandchildren. They also received gifts to unwrap during the calls. Comotti’s adoptive family sent her a shawl, just as she had requested.
“Blue, like your eyes,” said nursing home director Maria Giulia Madaschi. Comotti laughed happily as the workers wrapped him in the shawl.
Tami “Mario” Palmiro was thrilled with his baseball cap with the name of the professional football team of the Atalanta Serie A in Bergamo, bringing joy to the stadium of the 81-year-old woman, before him he would also break down in tears.
Palmiro arrived at the nursing home in August and underwent a more heartbreaking transition than usual due to virus control procedures that strictly limit family visits, Madaschi said.
One of the “grandchildren,” Ilaria Sacco, said she signed up because she couldn’t travel to California to Italy’s home for Christmas this year and wanted to feel connected. Another, Caterina Damiano, explained that she had lost her two grandparents this year “but I still want to be a grandson.”
Madaschi said she was often moved to the point of crying over interactions as “grandchildren” and “nonni” found common ground. Many are already creating bonds, sometimes with real relatives who facilitate contact with the new “grandchildren”.
“Guests were able to perceive the Christmas spirit, the joy of the holidays: being able to unwind and give away, such a normal event in this anomalous period in which we live,” he said. “It has been a wonderful experience. To repeat. “
_____
Barry reported from Milan. Charlene Pele contributed from Alzano Lombardo and Alberto Pellaschiar contributed from Rome.
___
One Good Thing a AP: https://apnews.com/hub/one-good-thing