His name is Antonio Fantasia and is nearly ninety years old. He is a lucky man: he lived for 65 years with a woman he was madly in love with. In the 5o’s, they together moved to Rome from the poor rural village where they were both born. They created a family; they gave birth to children and saw their grandchildren grow into adulthood. They got old together, hand in hand. Then, one day, she, my grandmother, passed away. And my grandfather began a life in which her absence is so present that he is never left really alone. It is the routine of an old man, marked by the times to take medication, the walk in the neighbourhood, an abundant lunch and a light dinner. Her absence is everywhere. It catches up with him upon awakening, in front of the TV, along the pictures of a lifetime and in those spaces in the house they shared together.

“It would have been fair to leave this world together, but if not, I am happy she was the first to go as I would have never wanted her to go through this pain”, he told me.