My 34th birthday and how we brought our grandparents house back to life!
It was the year of 2007 and our grandparent’s house in Abruzzo had been empty for a long 11 years. La Nonna (our nan) sadly passed away in 2004 and Armando who lived in the house for four years, returned to Venezuela a few years after, so the house inevitably got filled with emptiness and sadness. With the exception of a couple of short visits made by my husband and I and then by Armando and Enzo, no one lived or visited the house in these long 11 years. Our short trips there served to realised that the house was in need of so much care and love.
Enzo and Armando getting warm (old style) in 2016
A few of the happiest memories of my childhood belong to this house: having the most amazing homemade meals cooked in its entirety by our Nonna (at least three courses, and during weekends it could go up to five courses with no problem!).
Celebrating my 11th birthday with la nonna and my dad
Somehow I wanted to honour all those happy memories, and bring the house back to life, so I thought that the best way to do this was to celebrate my 34th birthday in the house! My birthday is in August, right in the middle of summer therefore this was also the perfect excuse to go and enjoy the gorgeous weather, the amazing food and of course, the beaches, the stunning beaches of Abruzzo!
Sneaking to the fridge with Enzo to secretly get more food when everyone was taken those long naps after lunch, running up and down the stairs and out in the balcony unconsciously appreciating all the freedom we had in that house and in that town (something we didn’t have back home in Venezuela), and of course my birthdays from when I was a kid.
Enzo and I sneaking to the fridge as apparently everyone else were having a nap . . . clearly not!
A summer afternoon with our grandparents back in 1991
Somehow I wanted to honour all those happy memories, and bring the house back to life, so I thought that the best way to do this was to celebrate my 34th birthday in the house! My birthday is in August, right in the middle of summer therefore this was also the perfect excuse to go and enjoy the gorgeous weather, the amazing food and of course, the beaches, the stunning beaches of Abruzzo!
A few months before my 34th birthday I announced to my family: Let’s celebrate my birthday this year in Abruzzo!, in our grandparents house. I want the house to be filled again with joy, happiness, balloons, cake, people hugging each other, to get to feel again in the house that family feeling, an important value that we learnt from our parents and grandparents as we were being brought up.
Finally got to celebrate my birthday again in this house after so many years with family and friends!
And so we did, we celebrated my 34th birthday in the house, we sang happy birthday (Venezuelan’s style of course) for the first time in the house in 20 years! It was definitely one of the most special and meaningful birthdays I have had.
May 22, 2020