a family - a fragile peace

More than ten years ago a young Chinese mother came to Italy. She had traveled to Italy, far from her family with whom she left her first born daughter.

She came to live in a rural city surrounded by ricefields near Milan with her second daughter.

Years later, Wen Jing got a little sister. She could not have been prouder.

Suddenly there was a happiness in being a small family against all odds.

But this was a peace before the storm.

Hong Xia’s endeavor to belong and the struggle with different cultural habits, too easily dismissed or devalued by social workers who think it’s for the better of all involved to divide a family, has touched me deeply.

I wish for an awareness that might help to restore a fragile peace.