True Lovereadersdigest.co.in 79arrange the call. My family was eager to
see the man my grandmother wouldn’t
stop talking about.
There was Aldo on the computer
screen, beaming. “You didn’t use to
be blonde!” he said. My grandmother
burst into giggles.
Week after week, Aldo kept calling.
“It is nice to have someone care about
me again,” my grandmother told me.
The messages soon grew rosier:
heart emojis and photos of flowers.
“For when you wake up: Good morn-
ing,” he messaged once, when it was
daytime in Italy but still dark in Brazil.
My grandmother, who had shut her-
self off from the world, came back to
life. She began dressing up for their
virtual dates, putting on lipstick and
fixing her hair.
“We have to take you back to Polig-
nano!” my mother said one day. My
grandmother rejected the idea, saying,
“He has a wife!”
My mother was persistent, and
soon Marilena called Aldo with the
news. “We’ll be there for two weeks in
September,” she said. He agreed she
should come.
A
ccompanied by my mother, my
dad, my aunt, two cousins and
me, my grandmother landed
in Bari, nervous but smiling. When
we arrived at the hotel in Polignano,
a bouquet of pink roses was wai-
ting for her. “Welcome to your home-
town,” Aldo had written on the card.
“I hope you don’t wait another 68 years
to return.”
The next morning we drove past
miles of twisted olive groves. My
grandmother sighed and said, “It’s in-
teresting, isn’t it? An old lady, seeing
an old man.”
Aldo had asked us to meet him at
the church of San Vito, where Mass
would soon be starting. When we
pulled up to the entrance, he was wait-
ing. With sky-blue eyes hiding behind
silver Ray-Ban sunglasses, slicked-
back hair and a tan jacket, he was as
cool an octogenarian as I’ve seen.
My grandmother leapt out of the
car and walked toward him, her
arms open.
“So beautiful,” he said, trembling as
he hugged her. She blushed and intro-
duced him to the family. “It’s a historic
moment, a miracle,” he announced.
Later, my grandmother handed Aldo
two gifts. One was a new iPhone—
his was old and always cutting out
during their conversations. “And this
is for Beatrice,” she said, pointing to
the second gift. He opened it to find
a grey shawl. Aldo stared at my grand-
mother, tearing up and mouthing,
“Thank you.”"SO BEAUTIFUL,"
ALDO SAID,
TREMBLING AS HE
HUGGED MY
GRANDMOTHER.