From Verona, with love

Please note: this post is 104 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only

Hello! My name is Valeria, and I have just joined South London Cares as Development Coordinator. I’m from Italy, but I have been living in London for the past six years – with a one-year detour in Munich, Germany. 

The idea of ‘community’ has always been with me. My very name, Valeria, was decided by a community. It was fought over and eventually voted with a secret ballot by a gang of four nonni (grandparents), three pro-zie (great-aunties), eight zie and zii (aunties and uncles), and nine cousins. I’m sure Osi, the cat, also had his say. So even before birth, I was part of a community. I wasn’t able to speak, and I was already listening to stories. As a little girl, I was sung one-century old lullabies, sometimes in dialects that I could barely understand. My eyes lit up every time Zio Guido and Nonno Luigi recalled their war memories, or their climbing adventures on the Alps. Those stories were wonderful to me; I wanted to be generous and brave like them.

Once I learned to read, I discovered that I could connect with people beyond space and time. Why limit myself to people’s stories when I could have books too? The first book I read was about the friendship between a cat and a flower. They were neighbours and would greet each other every day; when the summer came and the sun hit hard Cat would water Flower every day, and take him for strolls on a little trolley. This story was wonderful to me, because I wanted to be like Cat and look after someone close to me. 

Growing up in Verona, the ground under my feet held many secrets. Layers of bricks, walls, houses, theatres have been piling up over centuries. This made me think – why limit myself to foreign languages, when I could learn dead languages too? So for fifteen years, I have been pouring over massive books of Greek and Latin grammar, because being able to understand what another human being felt, thought, and went through centuries ago struck me as a privilege. There was nothing dead in those languages; for me, those pages were full of people, thoughts, feelings and life. I was connecting with the invisible history that went before me.

And then a time came when I decided I wanted to help others tell stories, and create more tales in the real world, rather than just listening. So it was quite natural to join South London Cares when the opportunity arose. I hope to be able to help people gently open up to each other; to listen, create and share stories across Southwark and Lambeth – places rich with the wonder of everyday life. I look forward to being part of the South London Cares tapestry and sharing stories in our wonderful community network.