Some 50 years ago, among the many children affected with spina bifida, Carla was born in Rome to father Carmine and mother Giovanna.
Every 1000 children born, at least one is born with spina bifida, a congenital malformation which, besides the bone marrow, can affect the brain, the cerebellum, the torso and adjacent structures. at the time, we are in '70s, the concept of inclusion, which today is slowly taking place, was still in its infancy.
A disabled child was loved but considered "different" and destinated to grow up alone and the demonstration is Carla’s bedroom in her family house: the wheelchair only just fitted in, and under the bed her mother kept potatoes, next to the orthopedic shoes. At the time friendship for a disabled child was not an option. The bedroom windows were almost always half-closed, thus the potatoes would not rot...
While Carla was attending the public school, in itself something out of the ordinary, her parents organise a trip to Stuttgard to try to give to their beloved daughter the possibility to stand upright, by means of a difficult surgery performed on her back and with the help of bulky and painful leg braaces.
Carla is still young when she accepts, for her mother' sake, to receive the holy comunion by standing upright.
What she remembers of that day iss mainly the pain in the legs and the terror of falling awkwardly on the ground. From that day on Carla decides to continue living sitting yet free, rather than standing up yet prisoner of those heavy braces: this is the turning point of her life and not only: from then on she lives fighting for that aautonomy which nature tried to deny her and helping others along the difficult path that a disabled person has to pursue in order to live a normal life.
She is only seven years old when she lives the drama of a lot of babes: like a dolly in the hands of someone who can do what he wants: a man who stealed her innocence and her first dreams .
Wounds on her soul, due to the an abuse suffered when she was only a little child. Wounds on her legs due to the surgery to try to give her the possibility to stand upright. Wounds that never nicked her will to live a straordinary, ordinary life.
Life goes on and Carla continues to dream and to build her future. A future with an able-bodied husband and a nice daughter.The baby became a woman and then a mother. Her daughter, Ilaria, ever since she was a child saw in her mother a butterfly: the wings instead of the legs. Today Carla decided to tatooa a butterfly on an arm to do not forget and continue to fly and to feel otherwise disabled.
Some 50 years ago, among the many children affected with spina bifida, Carla was born in Rome to father Carmine and mother Giovanna.
Every 1000 children born, at least one is born with spina bifida, a congenital malformation which, besides the bone marrow, can affect the brain, the cerebellum, the torso and adjacent structures. at the time, we are in '70s, the concept of inclusion, which today is slowly taking place, was still in its infancy.
A disabled child was loved but considered "different" and destinated to grow up alone and the demonstration is Carla’s bedroom in her family house: the wheelchair only just fitted in, and under the bed her mother kept potatoes, next to the orthopedic shoes. At the time friendship for a disabled child was not an option. The bedroom windows were almost always half-closed, thus the potatoes would not rot...
While Carla was attending the public school, in itself something out of the ordinary, her parents organise a trip to Stuttgard to try to give to their beloved daughter the possibility to stand upright, by means of a difficult surgery performed on her back and with the help of bulky and painful leg braaces.
Carla is still young when she accepts, for her mother' sake, to receive the holy comunion by standing upright.
What she remembers of that day iss mainly the pain in the legs and the terror of falling awkwardly on the ground. From that day on Carla decides to continue living sitting yet free, rather than standing up yet prisoner of those heavy braces: this is the turning point of her life and not only: from then on she lives fighting for that aautonomy which nature tried to deny her and helping others along the difficult path that a disabled person has to pursue in order to live a normal life.
She is only seven years old when she lives the drama of a lot of babes: like a dolly in the hands of someone who can do what he wants: a man who stealed her innocence and her first dreams .
Wounds on her soul, due to the an abuse suffered when she was only a little child. Wounds on her legs due to the surgery to try to give her the possibility to stand upright. Wounds that never nicked her will to live a straordinary, ordinary life.
Life goes on and Carla continues to dream and to build her future. A future with an able-bodied husband and a nice daughter.The baby became a woman and then a mother. Her daughter, Ilaria, ever since she was a child saw in her mother a butterfly: the wings instead of the legs. Today Carla decided to tatooa a butterfly on an arm to do not forget and continue to fly and to feel otherwise disabled.