In the quiet of the valley, the sound of the siren pierced the air. It was not the usual midday announcement, but a desperate call that brought with it a dark and urgent message: “Hurry, help, something terrible has happened to the mine”.
The women, whose bond was marked by their loved ones at work over there, left the house with a mixture of screaming and crying. The lucky ones, whose husbands and children had finished their shift, rushed to support the others. In the worst moments, the country transformed into a family united in pain. Slammed doors, shouts, tears, and anxiety and anguish on every face. People called out to each other: “What happened? What happened?
The miner’s profession is fraught with deadly risks, and death and danger are constant companions. An awareness that creates a certain fatalism: if you don’t die in the mine, you die because of the mine – silicosis, arthrosis, saturnism. When the siren howls, emotion and fear trigger an instinctive reaction, and everyone goes to the mine to help.
The women prayed, motionless in front of the closed gates, clinging to the bars. They anxiously watched the doors of the freight elevators and elevators. Each time they scrutinized the blackened faces of the miners who were climbing back up, in the hope of recognizing their loved one. Joy or pain, kisses and hugs mixed with tears.
Vittoria was at the wash house when she heard the siren, she understood that an accident had occurred. Her husband was safe at home, sick with silicosis, but her father and brother were down there. She left her clothes on the stone slab of the fountain and hurried to the mouth of the mine. Shortly afterwards they both came back up.
He recognized the silhouette of his father, black with smoke, he was crying and tears streaked the coal dust on his face. A heart attack. She approached, he nodded to her and she understood that Saverio was not dead. He was lying under a blanket, the porters put him in the ambulance. The doctor approached and told them, with a dark expression, that the boy’s spine was compromised, and went to assist the others.
Vittoria hugged her father. She was shocked, and she repeated that she would rather die than see her son throw himself under a rock to save him.
The broken back. At twenty, life was ruined, forever. A few months later, the mine, which was not very profitable, was closed.
Story by Elda Caspani. – Vittoria was my sister’s best friend. A story of bad governance in that Bergamasco mine. (www.ilcavedio.org)
ALL SUNDAY TALES
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