A life project

This is the story of a guest of the Casa SantAngela Tailoring Laboratory. It is a story that is based on real elements but which has revisited names and faces. It will accompany you to the places where we work and show the values we believe in..

Enjoy the reading!

I will never forget the first time I walked into the lab. I was tense, scared, I didn't know what to expect. They have been complicated years and for me every change is like entering a glass factory: tension at every movement and the fear, always deeply rooted, that in a second everything could collapse.

As I crossed the threshold I was greeted by a faint but intermittent noise from the sewing machine, laughs and chatin different languages.I didn't have time to look around that uA lady sitting at a table in front of me raised the foot of the car and pulled the fabric from under the lake. She adjusted her glasses and squinted at me..
I felt pierced by his gaze that everything was but inquisitive.
Adelehe is short-sighted and always welcomes everyone like this. It is the years as a seamstress that weigh on her eyesight and her hands. When she squeezed mine to welcome me I felt her rough skin and I thought about how many pins, even my grandmother, had stuck in her fingers.

I sat down at the table without knowing how to speak. Non I knew what to say, I didn't know where to start.Adelehe has seen many of women like me and immediately realized that it was not time to delay: Take off your coat dear and come near here. Today I will teach you how to thread the lake. I am old and sometimes it escapes me. I need someone younger than me to help me.i”.
There and then I fell down. I've really come this far, I've really hit rock bottom so much that I have to start from here?
Adelehe must have sensed my thought: Don't think this is your only job. There are fabrics for Tilla's mobile to choose and cut. Then I'll take you to the warehouse. You certainly have more aesthetic sense than me and then we have to decide what will be your first personal project.You knowalreadywhat would you like to sew?”
Again, paralyzed. No, I didn't know and e Adeledon't worry right away. Before you leave tonight I'll give you a notebook. There are bags and pillows that the other girls decided to sew their first day. You'll see some grungy ones but we thought we'd collect them in an album. So while you browse it you get an idea, and even some laughs.”.
And suddenly I relaxed a little. Feeling that I was already part of a project after a few minutes triggered a sense of peace in me. The road is certainly long but I think I am in good hands. They are strong, experienced, courageous and determined. They are the best I could wish for now. They understand me but they don't pity me, they treat me as if I were onea personwhatever, as if my burden had remained outside the door. Or hanging in a cabinet. And that heartens me.

I didn't sleep that night. I was far from home, in an unfamiliar room with my usual whirlwind of thoughts in my head. The past that, as always, with the lights off, comes back to visit me. I had to get out of there.
I dressed quickly and wearing the coat fell Adele's notebook. A floral cover, one of those a little back, with a’label“Between a point and a chat”.
How foolish to think that a notebook could make me laugh. What nonsense.
I picked it up and a page opened: a slightly awkward drawing of a stuffed bunny. With buttons instead of eyes. A few notes on the fabric better something soft so it doesn't itch. But towels can also be used. And in an instant I was sitting on the ground, my eyes filled with tears, retracing the journey of the girls who had been here before me. To read their notes and their desires and review myself in those pages.ine.

A few days later at the laboratory I said goodbyeAdeleand I began: I want to do something for others. Carousels for children are difficult.”. Adelesmiled pleased: No, they are not difficult. They are just a big responsibility. Because they will end up in the hands of families who have just had children. You feel it. I didn't have time to think about it that my hands were already working. I haveHo examined the drawings, cut,sewn, unstitched and cut out many samples but in the end I managed, with Rosa by my side, to create the first set of small padded molds.

I handed it over to the Project Manager who thanked me..

I felt good after a long time. There will be ups and downs but starting over in this environment gives me hope. A world of kind, caring, socially engaged people exists. Here and elsewhere. It is silent and perhaps unknown to many but it is fortunate that it exists. It is a gift that volunteers give to me and to anyone who is in difficulty. It is a gift for the community, for companies, for those who will receive the fruits of our work. It shows us how interconnected we are and how much the value of everything always starts with people.