Massimiliano Mantione's Blog

These things are part of life.

Today, in the early morning (2am), my mother passed away.
We already had a sort of miracle before, but these things can only be postponed, not avoided.

Anyway, given that we cannot decide when these things happen, we should care about the how, which is IMHO much more important.
In this sense, I cannot imagine how it could have been better: my mother has been serene until her last breath, she was conscious, she could recognize us, and we had the chance to stay near her all these days and nights, here in Sicily. And, even more important, she was serene knowing what was happening to her, and she just accepted that as a fact of life. She really passed away "in God's Grace", which is marvelous: we could never ask for more.

Of course, faith helps: it helped her, and it helps me and my wife. And praying gives that kind of peace that you generally cannot get anywhere else. Also, I know I'll meet her again... it's not that I "believe" it, I know it just as I "know" that I have two hands, or that the sun will rise tomorrow. And she already gave us signs of her presence.

In the end, I want to thank everybody that stayed close to us. It's good feeling that we are not alone.

We will give her the last farewell tomorrow, and her body will rest here, in the village where she was born.
We will likely come back home (I mean near Milan) at the end of the following week, all together (me, my wife, my son and my father).