When an elderly mother finds herself alone—her husband gone for more than a decade—caring for a son of nearly 44 with intellectual disabilities, she learns to lean on outside help. My Sergio is a champion horseman. For twenty years he's done hippotherapy, he swims beautifully, and he loves his day program.
Then March 10, 2020 arrived. The coronavirus hit, and Sergio was locked inside the house. Him—the boy who, when asked "What is happiness to you?", would answer: "Being with other people".
I was terrified. For him and for me. I feared he would spiral into rage, as he had during smaller crises in the past. I turned to the Lord and to his father in heaven, asking him to steady our son's hand. And I still can't believe what happened next. Sergio doesn't really understand what a virus is, though he hears about it constantly. Every day he asks me: "Do we go to school today?" I tell him: "Next month." I used to say "April," then "May."
"I'll keep you company, so you won't be alone, Mom".
"I'll keep you company, so you won't be alone, Mom".And he smiles and says: "So Easter lasted a really long time! I'll keep you company, so you won't be alone, Mom." Then: "But I have my friends." And he smiles when he sees, on my phone, the faces of his Fede e Luce friends—people who haven't abandoned us, who share their small joys and big ones, their everyday lives with us. And he says: "Mom, we're not alone".
He sits down and plays cards with me and his aunt, quiet and gentle. He helps with the little tasks around the house. He waves, smiling, at his cousins playing soccer in the yard. When his friend Franco or Antonello calls, he wants to hear their voices. No complaints. No reproaches.
And I realize I still have so much to learn—from him, from others, from life itself. Life in all its pain holds moments of real beauty, genuine love, new solidarity, and wonder renewed.
Perhaps only now am I learning to see my son with fresh eyes. Life is not just logic, efficiency, and rules. Sergio has reminded me that we can truly live and find happiness only if we understand what love really is.
