Violetta

I visit my mother almost daily - socially distant in the garden. She is 92 although insists on shaving 20 years off if you ask her. Diminutive, never taller than 5’0”, and now shrinking gracefully. A mother of five, still very sharp and with a memory that is better than mine. A celebrated concert pianist in her earlier days she still plays the piano most mornings. She keeps up to date with all the news, loves watching Italian quiz shows and solving puzzles. She watches on average three masses a day on tv.

My mother is yet another one of those amazing women and men who lived through the war and through all the changes and upheavals that life has thrown at them. She is a survivor.