The letter C and A Special Birthday

December is marked by the letter C. There is of course Christmas but there is also Carolyn, Cynthia, and most important Costanza. Carolyn, you were just a student when first you came to stay with us, rather perplexed and not quite sure what you were doing in an unknown Italian household as you were finishing your studies. It wasn’t quite as odd as it seemed at first sight for the lady of the house was American. And you got involved in washing potsherds- But that is another story. Then there was Cynthia, doing her best to learn Italian, who took up her abode in a curious rambling apartment, once small medieval chambers where to get to one of the bathrooms you had to climb up flights of stairs on transparent steps. She introduced the American who lived below to Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese and her other wonderful nature poems. And then there was Helen, not herself a Constanze, but mother of an emperor and finder of the True Cross. Her name is linked to that of her son, the imperial emperor Constantine so Cynthia can be thought of as one of our Cs.

Most pertinent right now though is my granddaughter Costanza,  best described as a fizzy hard sugar candy. It is her birthday just like those other Cs and I vividly remember the day,  29 years ago, when I drove three times from Orvieto to Todi expecting to be told the child is born! Evidently however she was in no hurry to begin her new life outside of the warmth of her mother’s womb. Finally we were told she had arrived and it was a girl! We wondered what she would be like but soon found out. She turned out to be a fizzy hard sugar candy ready to make her way in the world.

Costanza. We know when you are here for you are continuously bubbling, chirping, never quiet a moment. Certainly not like her grandmother.

Perhaps we should have given you a different name. Your chirping is like the sparrow on the balcony and we always  know you are here. We might have called you little sparrow, an apparently fragile bird that survives the tempests. A little bird, harbinger, messenger of joy, of spring.

Although your name, Costanza, or Constance, is also well chosen. Because when you decide to do something – that’s what you’ll do, come, as they say, hell or high water. Or the storms of December. You are not one to give up.

Costanza the twittering sparrow.

Costanza, a fizzy hard sugar candy that makes us all smile.

Costanza whose birthday we celebrate in December.  When all is quiet, something is amiss. For Costana is life, is joy. Happy birthday, Costanza!