Grandmother Olivia at Casa Verdiana E-Book

Leone Gabriele Rotini

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

THE book "GRANDMA OLIVIA A CASA VERDIANA" opens to the reader a world very close to American, Italian and civilized families throughout the world, i.e. the one relating to Rest Homes for the so-called SELF-SUFFICIENT people of the third age, but who often use a walker cart. There are aspects of daily life, friendships and relationships between them, with the Sisters who manage Casa Verdiana, as well as with doctors, civil workers and family members, the latter fundamental for their physical and mental health with their affection and their visits, which have an effect comparable to that obtained with medical therapies and with good material, physical and spiritual assistance. It reflects the American, Italian and other nations of the world society, because the people hosted are mostly women, who live longer than men. Foreigners such as NONNA OLIVIA are also starting to be present, a sign that Italian society is increasingly international and multiracial.

Leseprobe

Chapters-Index

Chapter 1.Transfer of Grandma Olivia to Casa Verdiana.

Chapter 2.The structure of Casa Verdiana.

Chapter 3.The nuns of Casa Verdiana.

Chapter 4.The Operators of Casa Verdiana.

Chapter 5.Daily life of grandmother OLIVIA and the other guests of Casa Verdiana.

Chapter 6.The Guests/Characters of Casa Verdiana from 1 to 25.

Chapter 7.The Casa Verdiana Parties.

Chapter 8.The Guests/Characters of Casa Verdiana from 26 to 55.

Chapter 9.Casa Verdiana Vaccinations.

Leone Gabriele Rotini

GRANDMOTHER OLIVIA AT CASA VERDIANA

AMERICAN GRANDMOTHER IN THE ITALIAN RETIREMENT HOME

Il Libro fa' parte della Collana ideata e scritta dall'Autore Rotini Leone Gabriele dal titolo "VITA DEI NONNI E DELLE NONNE NELLA CASA DI RIPOSO PER PERSONE AUTOSUFFICIENTI E NON AUTOSUFFICIENTI" di cui il primo libro è "IL NONNO AL RECLUSORIO".

Tale Collana fa' parte integrale del Copyright e nessun libro in qualunque lingua al mondo può essere prodotto e stampato con i contenuti a cui fa riferimento la NOTA riportata senza l'Autorizzazione scritta da parte dall'Autore.

This work is published directly by the Author through the Youcanprint self-publishing platform and the Author holds all rights to it exclusively, no part of this book may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the Author.

L'autore ha voluto che tutte le foto riportino scritte in italiano perché così ogni lettore imparerà a leggere la lingua italiana.

Title | Grandmother Olivia at Casa Verdiana

Author | Leone Gabriele Rotini

ISBN | 9791221489378

© 2023 – All rights reserved to the Author

This work is published directly by the Author through the Youcanprint self-publishing platform and the Author holds all rights to it exclusively. No part of this book can therefore be reproduced without the prior consent of the Author.

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Made by human

Chapter 1.Transfer of Grandma Olivia to Casa Verdiana.

By now the end of summer was approaching and grandmother OLIVIA, guest of Casa Verderio, was about to move, given the improvements in her physical and mental conditions in the structure for SELF-SUFFICIENT people. Thus the son Lucas, after speaking with the director Beatrice, informs her of the decision to transfer his mother to a facility for self-sufficient people, because due to professional commitments relating to his profession as a doctor he was unable to follow her, as she refused to be assisted by a caregiver.

He thus began looking for a retirement home for self-sufficient individuals, and for several days he visited some facilities of this type near Florence, his city of residence. Among those visited he identified the possible solution to a problem that had become more pressing every day. He repeated the visit to the property and realized that Casa Verdiana represented a satisfactory solution.

It was located on a hill, overlooking Florence and with a large garden at the rear of the building, it had a single place, immediately free, with a single bedroom including an internal bathroom.

The management of the retirement home was entrusted to a well-known congregation of nuns and the references were excellent.

They had large internal spaces, a dining room, a daytime living room with the latest generation fifty-inch television which allowed, among other things, direct connections with the major national and European Marian sanctuaries via YouTube, and there was an internal chapel where on Sundays the priest from the nearby parish came to celebrate mass. The kitchen was managed by the nuns themselves, so it was of good quality, and assistance for any needs was entrusted to the superior Sister Lucia and the nurse Sister Elisa, who, living in the structure, guaranteed 24 hours a day of nursing assistance, and to two external operators qualified women Oss, who cleaned and they sanitized all rooms and common areas.

The elderly people assisted could reach a maximum of thirty units and had to be self-sufficient, even if many were able to move aroundthey used the walking cart. Two family doctors looked after all the guests of Casa Verdiana and once a week, in the morning, they made themselves available for medical visits and prescriptions. Casa Verdiana Had also of exercise bikes and treadmills for physical activity of the guests, which the nun nurses submitted further to group gymnastics every day in the meeting room on the ground floor. The rooms were all located on the first floor and could be reached by a comfortable and large lift, which was able to accommodate stretchers for the hospital emergency services of the grannies. I say grandmothers because there were only five men around! Based on this information, references, organization and assistance, Lucas spoke with his mother who, even if a little reluctantly, was convinced to go and live at Casa Verdiana. The monthly fee was certainly not cheap but not expensive either, not within everyone's reach but sustainable. The tuition included all services, including washing linen and supply of liquid hand soap, shower bottle, mandatory every week, toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrush and hair shampoo. Once a month Casa Verdiana had a hairdresser and pedicure come for the needs of all guests, naturally for a small fee. So one Sunday morning two years ago Lucas went to Casa Verderio, an operator helped grandmother OLIVIA pack her bags, say goodbye to all the operators and put the bags in the car and made her mother get in, Lucas left to reach Casa Verdiana, after having already had the opportunity to thank and greet doctor Verderio and the director on Friday Etc Beatrice for the excellent results obtained and for informing them of the decision made.

After about an hour they arrived at Casa Verdiana and were welcomed by the superior/director Sister Lucia with a lot of warmth and humanity, so much so that the grandmother immediately felt at ease and placed a lot of trust in her. They went up to the room together, all tidy and clean, and they saw that the room had a single bed with a bedside table, lamp, dresser, a wardrobe, a nice armchair located in front of the dresser on which there was a television with a remote control. The bathroom was inside the room and had a shower with a retractable seat, which allowed you to do it even while sitting, two support supports, one of which was a handle and the other linear and one meter long. The toilet also allowed you to wash your private parts, as it had a water tap nearby with an extension equipped with a special flow-regulating jet. The safety of using the bathroom, said Sister Lucia, is a fundamental point for the elderly of Casa Verdiana, and naturally those who do not feel safe has the operator which helps him during the shower. The towel for the face was changed every three days and the one for the shower every time after use, while the bed sheets and pillowcases were changed every fortnight. With all these clarifications, together with safety measures and daily cleaning and sanitization standards. Lucas left his mother OLIVIA, after hugs and kisses, at Casa Verdiana in the hands of Sister Lucia, the other nuns and the operators. However, first they arranged all the clothes, suits, jackets, sweaters, shirts and various garments in the wardrobe, in the drawers of the dresser and on the bedside table. Grandmother OLIVIA settled very well into living at Casa Verdiana and remained a guest for almost two years, but then due to health problems due to the thyroid, rheumatic pain and a sudden and serious allergy to pollen which they debilitated, also due to the use of specific allergy medications, her son Lucas moved her to Casa Azzurra, on the seaside of Marina di Pisa, but only under the advice of the Casa Verdiana doctor, doctor Dante, certain that for OLIVIA living on the sea represented the solution to his problems without having to use drugs to treat allergies, the cause of his debilitation.

I had known grandmother OLIVIA at Casa Verderio, a facility for non-self-sufficient people where she had just arrived, while I was about to leave her to move to Casa Azzurra, a structure for self-sufficient individuals located on the sea of Marina di Pisa.

Subsequently, while she had been at Casa Verdiana for almost two years, a facility for self-sufficient people, where she had moved after having been at Casa Verderio for about a year, she spoke to me by phone, to say hello and hear how I was in the facility by the sea. of Casa Azzurra, where I had moved and she appreciated what I had told her.

So her son Lucas contacted Sister Pensa, the director of Casa Azzurra, asking her for the availability of a place for his mother OLIVIA and setting a date for a visit to the facility.

After his visit to the retirement home in Marina di Pisa, which had completely satisfied him, due to the location, the services offered and the quality of life of the guests, he was convinced that for his mother OLIVIA it was the ideal place in which solve her health problems and that she would be fine.

She talked about it with her mother, but she didn't want to leave Casa Verdiana. She had made friends with the other grandmothers, she could see the city she loved, Florence, she could receive visits from her son Lucas and her grandson Alessandro. Lucas reminded her that the transfer was only due to health reasons and on the advice of the doctor Dante, promising that he would visit her every two weeks also with Alessandro, because by car from Florence you can get to Pisa in an hour. Then OLIVIA understood her son's words and accepted the transfer. So three months ago, after notifying the director of Casa Verdiana, Sister Lucia, who had already been informed by doctor Dante, and canceling the room, OLIVIA accompanied by her son Lucas arrived at Casa Azzurra and so we met again after almost two years and her stories allowed me to write this book, which recounts the life of Nonna OLIVIA at Casa Verdiana, a facility for self-sufficient people located in the hills around Florence, which welcomed grandmother OLIVIA as a guest for almost two years.

The opportunity to write, for now, only about grandmother OLIVIA's experience at Casa Verdiana is given by the fact that she moved to Casa Azzurra about three months ago and only had time to talk to me about her stay at Casa Verdiana , but later she promised me that she will also tell me about her experience as a non-self-sufficient individual at Casa Verderio, where she was a guest for almost a year and which will in fact be described in the next book.

Grandma Olivia certainly has friendship and sympathy towards me to tell me about her life.

What pushed me to write the book about an American grandmother in an Italian retirement home were also pedagogical, social and testimonial reasons, aimed at making today's society aware of the reality of Italian retirement homes that host grandmothers, including those of foreign origin, but accustomed to living in Italy, in a particular and difficult moment in their lives.

Chapter 2.The structure of Casa Verdiana.

Casa Verdiana, being located on the Florentine hills, enjoys a splendid view of Florence and beyond. The structure has already been described a little but in this chapter I will complete all aspects. It has the shape of a seven and is spread over two floors with two elevators that connect the ground floor to the first floor, one of which is large for all guests and for emergency services, and a smaller service one, used by the nuns and staff. The ground floor has a bright entrance onto the street, with a suitable lane that breaks down barriers and also allows entry to walking trolleys and emergency stretchers. It has a large entrance hall and on both sides there is a central corridor along the entire structure measuring forty-five meters, which is repeated on the second floor. Overlooking the corridor are an interview room, a management office, an infirmary room and a large dining room capable of accommodating thirty diners divided across ten tables. There is a well-equipped kitchen, with a fume extractor working during food preparation, a pantry room and a cold room. There is also a warehouse, a service bathroom with a separate area for dressing operators and housing trolleys used for cleaning and sanitizing the rooms and common areas. The part accessible to guests is completed by a laundry room with three mega washing machines, a wardrobe room with an ironing corner equipped with two ironing surfaces with two steam irons, a large meeting room capable of accommodating padded armchairs, divided into two rows , more than thirty guests and furnished with a TV stand on which stands a latest generation 50-inch smart TV, with Internet connection, and two tables for daily card games. All along the corridor there are padded chairs where guests sometimes stop to talk with relatives during visiting hours, if the interview room is busy. A large chapel for religious functions completes the part reserved for guests. On the walls along the entire corridor there are paintings donated to Casa Verdiana by various artists, some unknown, others famous and honestly, every time you walk down it, it feels like you are in an art gallery. Finally, there are two exercise bikes and two treadmills for those who want and can exercise. The rest of the ground floor is reserved for the nuns for their rooms, bedrooms, dining room and living room.

Taking the lift you go up to the first floor where you are greeted by a large atrium which leads to the central corridor divided into two parts and overlooked on both sides by thirty single rooms reserved for guests plus two service bathrooms and a room with wardrobes containing spare linen for the beds and towels for the bathroom, face and bidet. On the sides along the corridor there are four groups of three chairs padded which guests sometimes stop to talk about. On the walls of the corridor there are other hanging paintings given to Casa Verdiana but none by famous artists. There are two exercise bikes for exercise. The rooms are not very spacious but offer adequate and safe space for the movement of elderly people. Then all the rooms are equipped with a fire smoke detector, large window overlooking the street or garden, prints of Florence, including streets, historic buildings, statues, squares, churches, stretches of the Arno, and they all have the internal bathroom equipped with an extractor fan. The furnishings are similar for all the rooms, but with some small differences in the furniture, as sometimes at the request of the guest there is a padded chair and a desk for writing, in the type of armchair and television. At the end of both sides of the corridor there are two open rooms with table, chairs, armchairs and TV stand, capable of facilitating coexistence, exchange and socialization between guests, even with card games or joint viewing of details. television events. The first floor has an emergency exit that allows access to an external staircase that reaches the ground floor. A unique peculiarity is represented by the presence of loudspeakers, both in the corridor on the ground floor and on the first floor, which broadcast symphonic music all day at a low volume which helps to instill serenity in the guests, who appreciate and thank the superior Sister Lucia for this who had the idea. THE garden of Casa Verdiana is truly splendid, made up of seven flowerbeds full of green lawn, flowers, green plants, olive trees and hedges surrounding each flower bed. It is frequented all year round by guests, who benefit from the view of everything that is greenery and flowers. In summer, two gazebos are also set up which are a destination, in the morning and late afternoon, for both guests alone and in the company of visiting relatives or friends. Another peculiarity is represented by the presence of a water tank in which they live goldfish and a cage with two cute green parrots that attracts more spectators than the fish tank.

Chapter 3.The nuns of Casa Verdiana.

The nuns of Casa Verdiana are the cornerstone of the organization of the retirement home and have everything and everyone on their shoulders and only the two external operators lend a hand in cleaning, sanitizing the rooms and common areas and also helping guests who have need, to get dressed in the morning, go to bed in the evening and take the obligatory weekly shower.

The nuns are lucky because Sandra and Giulia, the two external operators of Casa Verdiana, never miss a day from work and, being single, they live their profession as a service to others.

However, the nuns are women like all the others and sometimes their different characters lead them to lively discussions which, however, immediately return as soon as they are before the Lord in the chapel for a few moments of adoration or prayer, but the vow of obedience definitively resolves the residual problems and the Casa Verdiana organization works.

- Sister Lucia.

The superior/director Sister Lucia is a nun with vast human, social, organizational and spiritual experience. She presents herself as a tall woman, normal build, blue eyes, slightly elongated face, thin lips, well-groomed hands and a smile always on her lips. She spent ten years on a mission in Africa and returned to Italy five years ago. Among other things, she has a degree in Psychology, but she has never practiced the profession because the Lord called her, as soon as she graduated, and she responded Yes. He has a great influence, human and spiritual, on all nuns and women grannies of Casa Verdiana. He never raises his voice and sometimes his eyes are enough to do the talking. He cares about his nuns and grannies as if they were his daughters. Kindness of mind and heart can be seen in every gesture of affection, of consolation and service towards his daughters' grannies who call each one by the name they prefer. He has the gift of hospitality because he has an extraordinary sensitivity capable of making others perceive grannies who enter Casa Verdiana or who already live there, a love and affection that makes them feel better than at home. This is what happened with grandmother OLIVIA but also with all the others and some "rare" grandfathers.

In fact, they all have a serene face and when they see Sister Lucia they always smile and visually show their joy. Also respect guests who profess other religions and there are several at Casa Verdiana. In fact there is a Chinese Buddhist grandmother, an Indian Hindu grandmother, an Egyptian Islamic grandmother, a Japanese Buddhist grandmother, a German Protestant grandmother, an American grandmother of the evangelical religion, an English grandmother of the Anglican religion, and a Turkish Islamic grandmother. Once upon a time every month Sister Lucia organizes an interconfessional prayer between the grannies of the Christian religion and the grannies of all the other religions present at Casa Verdiana. The prayer lasts two hours and in addition to reading passages from the Gospel, passages relating to other religions are read and all the participating grannies also make spontaneous prayers. It must be recognized that this type of community prayer creates a climate of peace, respect and esteem between the grannies and towards the nuns. The superior does not serve during meals, but always opens them with a prayer which is sometimes an Our Father, sometimes a Hail Mary or a Glory Be. Instead, she manages the morning breakfast entirely, serving all the grannies with milk, coffee, biscuits, tea and chocolate on winter Sundays and holidays and immediately sends a nun to check if any grannies don't show up for breakfast. She leads the afternoon Rosary which takes place after the snack. She willingly stops to talk to everyone, but especially to those who most need affection or to be consoled due to some problem. She also takes care of the spiritual life of the other nuns, organizing gods' retreats three-hour afternoon meetings, inviting priests prepared in the knowledge of the Gospel and with a profound spirituality. At the end of these short spiritual retreats in the chapel the nuns have a brighter and more serene face. Finally, once every two months he organizes meetings with the guests' relatives to report to them the human, health and spiritual situation of all the guests of Casa Verdiana and, possibly, listen to suggestions or considerations from relatives.

-Sister Benedetta.

She has the job of Cook of the Verdiana House and is really good at both preparing food and desserts. She is not tall, has black eyes, a robust build, full lips, an oval face, a spontaneous smile, well-groomed hands, also because in the kitchen she always uses gloves. Sister Lucia made her follow a specialist course for cooks and she benefited from it, especially in the preparation of desserts. She also has great sensitivity, because at the end of the meal she goes between the tables to hear if the grannies appreciated the first and second courses prepared, also asking what dishes they prefer throughout the week. Naturally, Sister Benedetta participates in all the prayers of her community and in the mini spiritual retreats organized by Sister Lucia and frequents, as soon as she can, the internal chapel of Casa Verdiana for moments of adoration and personal prayer. I also report a qualitative list of three first and second courses, side dishes and desserts prepared by Sweat Blessed.

1-SPAGHETTI WITH FRESH TOMATO.

Wash, dry well and cut the tomatoes into pieces. Cook the size 5 Italian durum wheat spaghetti al dente in boiling water and add the salt. Fry the garlic in the Tuscan extra virgin olive oil and add the tomatoes and basil. Drain the pasta and sauté the spaghetti in a pan with the tomatoes and basil. Serve.

2-BREAD SOUP.

Prepare a mixture of onion, celery and carrots, then add many peeled tomatoes cut into pieces and salt. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, pour in the dry Tuscan bread soaked in water. Mix everything and bring to the boil slowly. Stir the soup gradually, checking that it does not stick. In the end the soup should be creamy. As a finishing touch, add chopped basil and Tuscan extra virgin olive oil. Serve.

3-TAGLIATELLE WITH SAUCE.

Prepare a meat sauce as follows: add minced beef and pork to chopped onion, celery and carrots. Brown everything, add salt and Italian white wine. When the wine has evaporated, add peeled tomatoes, a little tomato paste, a teaspoon of sugar and hot water to the mixture. Slowly concentrate the sauce until completely cooked. Cook the Italian tagliatelle separately in water until al dente. Add the sauce to the drained tagliatelle and mix until completely mixed. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Serve.

4-GUINE WITH TUSCAN OLIVES.