The woman out of time

Francesca Salvo is a 78-year old retired academic who lives in London. Her parents migrated to London from Italy in the 1950s. Her father worked as a waiter and his mother as a cleaner. They eventually saved enough money to open an Italian restaurant in north London. Francesca was the brightest of three children. She excelled in mathematics and graduated in computer science from Imperial College in the early 1970s. She married a fellow academic, an English man. When Evan died from lung cancer at the age of 50, Francesca never quite recovered. She never met anyone else. Her two children, and her work, became the focus of her life.

Francesca officially retired 15 years ago but continued to carry out research and teach some courses for postgraduate students. With so much more free time, she decided to buy an apartment in Florence, near where she was born and had spent the first nine years of her life. She was still in touch with cousins and relatives. She loved going back to Florence. She had a passion for art and red wine. Her children would often visit, and she took them on tours of the Uffizi gallery and to see the frescos at the chiesa di Ognissanti. When they had children of their own, she still encouraged them to join her in Florence. There was just about enough room. She took her grandchildren for walks in the Boboli gardens.

As Francesca became older she struggled more and more with her trips to Florence. Instead of going once every couple of months, she went only two or maybe three time a year. Travelling was very tiring. The queues seemed longer at the airport. Maybe it was immigration. Too many people. She couldn't understand why security was so complicated. She would forget to take out her perfume, although sometimes it got through unnoticed. Her son kept telling her to travel light, but she didn't understand. You can't just put everything on your phone. She needed medicines for blood pressure, for cholesterol, and for diabetes. She had been told to take a double dose of vitamin D and vitamin C for her immune system. And she could never find the right ones in Italy.