How many people in the world are forced to abandon their homeland! Watching the news every day we see men, women and children to leave their homeland in search of hope, of a new land that can offer them opportunities. These people today are forced to flee and often, unfortunately, they do not find opportunities.
Sixty years ago, my father also left his Region, Molise, his family and wife, looking for opportunities abroad. At the time many Italians migrated all over the world. Why? Because they deserved opportunities. My father with his brothers went to England, in Bedford, a town not far from London.
It was not exactly easy for him; you can imagine a country boy in love with his accordion in a new country so different and with a different language. My father was my hero. If there is one thing that I loved deeply in him it was his profound determination, his strength of will. In no time, he managed to learn English and find a good position to be able to bring there his family.
Therefore, at only two years old I went to England. The English language was my mother tongue. I always tell my daughters about my childhood, because it was wonderful. In the eyes of a child, the England of fifty years ago was the realm of wonders! Parks and immense freedom. How much green to explore, run, fly with my little bicycle. The English complain that it always rains, but when you are a child the rain becomes part of the game. And my sister and I used to play with my brother, we were happy, we were often with our cousins and we were a close family.
How can we forget dad, even if he was tired after a week of hard work he always loaded the car with all of us kids to take us to live new adventures! Once it was the zoo, another around the big airport, then the picnic in the park… Dad was always ready to go.
When a man finds an opportunity to be happy he fully grasped it and live it intensely, even if life puts him to the test. So dad from the pool wall he used to watch his children who were playing happily. Every person in the world deserves an opportunity, deserves to see his children happy, even if that is not his native land.
We are all migrants, for one reason or another, we will be anyway, sooner or later, but what matters is the opportunity to be happy! England for me and was the island of Peter Pan. There, I dreamed for the first time. There, I got to find out what fantasy is!
When we returned to Italy, our country did not welcome us warmly because we were a Southern family. Dad lost the habit of watching us playing. It was too harsh.
To you who are reading me I can tell you one thing: “for how tough life can be, or can be the life of those around you, be connected with your imagination, connect with that child within you that runs on the lawns even with the rain. When you find him, speak with him, watch him playing from the wall of the pool, he is yourself! Your imagination can take you wherever you want, because if you can imagine it then it is also true in real life!”.
The most important thing for me during all these years, it has been the fantasy and together with my imagination I create the fantasy gardens, so that people who receive them can remember at any time to connect with their imagination. So that they will know that they are in the right place and that everything follows an order, even if it is not always clear to us. Because if you imagine what you want and do not stop playing and be happy, what your heart dreams come true in your life!
For this reason, I create: the fantasy gardens connect me with my imagination and together we can create a better world!
Me in England with my sister Rosi (on the right) and my brother Gaetano
Me with my best friend, Judith (on the left), that I hope to meet again!