Fiorenza Sarzanini (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
«Stoils. In the waiting room of a hospital. Alone. There is no better word to describe the pressing feeling of disorientation and abandonment. We feel like this. Alone. Our daughter is even more desperately so, desperately alone and abandoned to her discomfort, her illness. Alone, abandoned in a situation that cannot be tackled with experience and lucidity or with the support of allies. Impossible to take care of others or anything else, there is no time, there is a lack of energy and serenity to follow other affections and seek comfort in friends or relatives. My daughter is sick, very sick and she doesn’t want anyone around her, she is unable to see anyone, to speak to anyone. Alone, me, my wife and her, in an exclusive and desperate circle of help, encounter and escape. Alone, we arrived at the hospital. The greatest fear, hospitalization. I can’t even imagine the hospitalization. She alone, even more alone, in the hospital, even more alone and desperate than that. So afraid of losing her and imagining her even more lostwithout the comfort of the looks of those who fight for her and love her».
Anna and Lorenzo are the parents of SS, she is 11 years old and suffers from anorexia nervosa. The ordeal of Anna and Lorenzo has become a book, Disposable bodypublished by Piemme.
“Body to lose” by Anna Benvenuti and Lorenzo Sanna (published by Piemme).
It is a book that takes your breath away. S. is a conscious child. In her diary she writes: «I feel tormented and tired, I see darkness everywhere, I see nothing but darkness. I wish I had more willpower to fight this disease and live my freedom. I feel like a monster because I make those who love me worry. I want to return happy and carefree as before with this story archived ».
At the end of a long and painful journey, S. seems to have returned to the way she was before. But her parents know that in the face of this disease we must never give up. And this is exactly the right way to deal with it.
«We don’t know if the victory will be temporary or destined to last, if the enemies have been buried and forgotten, or appeased, tamed. We don’t know anything yet, but we will always be there. In the end, the reality is that we didn’t understand, we weren’t able to grasp the signs, to cure the symptoms, to prevent, to guess what remedies could ward off the disease. We didn’t understand, but we were there, together and with love».
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