I’m is Luciana. I am fifty and a half years old I spent them doing what I am today and I will always be. A nurse.
I have been working in the ASP of Catanzaro, at the Soveria Mannelli Emergency Department as a nursing coordinator for four years. Before landing in Soveria, I worked for many years in other hospitals, also in Turin. A difficult moment for me that transfer to Piedmont, especially in a period when traveling was not so common. It cost me to leave all my affections, but I adapted and I worked very hard. I do not hide that returning home, as soon as the work granted me, made me rejoice.
Where I work doesn’t matters today, the most important is the what I do. Never as in these months, what we do has been so close to a battle. As we were an army.
I have always wanted to assist those who are sick and this is not only useful to me, it gives meaning to the work I do, and to my life. I devoted myself wholeheartedly to my career: masters, specializations, I had no reason to spare myself. I wanted to deserve respect for myself and be proud of me. Now that after years of sacrifices I have become an emergency room coordinator I think I can say I am satisfied.
During this period, many have called us heroes. We are not. It’s a word I’m not fond of. A word that is used lightly, Italy has cellars full of heroes, crowned and then forgotten and left there to gather dust. We are normal people at work, that job on which our Republic should be based. We are health professionals and take care of the patient, but above all we are human beings.
And today we are lost humans. Never in twenty-five years of career have I had to face something like this. And I was afraid. My biggest fear was and still is that of not being able to hold up. Fear of not being able to bear the fact of having to face death every day. It is inhuman. It is dehumanizing.
I don’t know what awaits us tomorrow, we have to go on day by day. All I know is that if we continue to be united and focused we will be able to breathe again. Meanwhile, we must accept that our habits change. My colleagues and I are the first to know and continue to isolate ourselves. For months I have lived alone, away from those I love, to protect my family. But like many years ago, when I lived in Turin and knew that I would go home, even now I am sure that I will return. I know. I, like all of us, will go home. And we will rejoice.
