As often happened to unmarried women of the past and despite the malicious judgments that surrounded them, Maria, now 88 years old, was a strong, independent and resolute woman. And she still is, despite her advanced age and the many vicissitudes that she has had to go through. She has always lived alone, but this has not stopped her from having a very satisfying social and professional life. A cultured, studious woman, as soon as she finished high school, she had enrolled in a typing course in order to start working as soon as possible and support herself independently. These were certainly not times of great opportunities, then, for women who wanted to embark on a brilliant professional career. And so, still young, having completed her training, she was hired by the Christian Democrats, where she soon made her mark. She met Aldo Moro and entered his secretariat, where she remained for a long time. Her life was very active and very full of satisfaction. She bought herself a beautiful house in Rome, near Piazzale Clodio, the neighborhood of those who practice a legal profession and where she still lives. Two years ago, already very old and long retired, Maria began to have health problems of a certain importance for which she needed a continuous series of tests. Nothing particularly specialized or sophisticated, just the need to repeat some analyses, such as measuring the blood count value, to keep the situation under control.

Although she did not lack a certain financial availability and she had requested a home service, she was told that she would have to resort to hospital admission. And after the hospital, as in an uninterrupted vicious circle, she was transferred to an RSA, where she had to spend many months and where perhaps she was destined to remain forever. Everything for frequent and regular blood count checks!

It seemed like a Kafkaesque situation with no way out. Meanwhile, in the RSA, Maria's health was worsening: she had fallen into a depressive state and was starting to feel confused. Furthermore, it seemed that her relatives had no interest in her returning to her home, quite the opposite.

It was only thanks to a sensitive and attentive social worker, who later became her support administrator, that Maria managed to return to her home five months ago, where she now lives with a Romanian caregiver, sweet and energetic at the same time, who she calls “my little girl”.