Bolzano. Darya Muzh apre il volume a pagina 117. «Eccoci qua, tutte e cinque. Io, Augusta, Gisella, Elena e Ottilia». La copertina rigida è argento. Titolo: “Darya, histoire d’une badante ukrainienne”. Oltre duecento scatti della fotografa americana Jane Evelyn Atwood. Un reportage realizzato nel 2007 a Bolzano e in Ucraina seguendo il lavoro e la vita di Darya, orgogliosamente badante («è una bellissima parola, significa fare attenzione, prendersi cura di un’altra persona») e orgogliosamente ucraina, in Italia dal 2001. Le foto, oggetto di una mostra al Trevi nel 2008, sono state ora raccolte in una elegante pubblicazione, uscita in Francia e negli Stati Uniti per la casa editrice parigina “Le bec en l’air”.

Orgogliosamente badante

Darya è tutte le donne che arrivano da paesi lontani per accudire i nostri anziani nell’ultimo spicchio della vita. Angeli custodi, che entrano nelle nostre case, ci aiutano ad assistere i genitori o i nonni, quando noi, da soli, non ce la facciamo.

Le foto guardano il mondo dalla loro prospettiva. Ci dicono chi sono. Da dove vengono, che storie hanno, cosa provano. E anche perché sono qui. «Perché, perché - taglia corto Darya -. Perché in Ucraina qualsiasi vita sarebbe stata peggiore. Non dico solo adesso con la guerra. Anche prima. Quando nasci in un paese povero, non puoi permetterti il lusso di sognare: prima devi sopravvivere. Oggi, con Putin, ancora di più». Ai tempi del comunismo le cose avevano un loro ordine, certamente malato, ma era pur sempre un ordine. «Mi sono laureata al Politecnico di Kiev a metà degli anni ’80 - racconta - . Nel 1987 ero direttrice di una fabbrica di mattoni nel mio villaggio, Peremyslovychi, al confine con la Polonia. Avevo cinquantatré operai sotto di me. Cinquantatré, non so se mi spiego, tutti uomini. Li comandavo a bacchetta. Nessuno sgarrava». Ride Darya.
Darya combs Ottilia's hair just after she's released from the hospital after being diagnosed with in-operable pancreatic cancer. Ottilia is 86 years old. Darya, a remarkable, 54 year-old woman from the Ukraine, has been working as a \\\"badante\\\" (caretaker for the elderly) for the last five years in Bolzano, Italy. Darya takes care not of one, but four sisters - Augusta, 94, Gisella, 84, Elena, 77, and Ottila, 86. She lives in the small apartment with the women, sleeping on a fold-out sofa in the living room. The sisters are severely handicapped, with Parkinson's disease, Alztheimer's, blindness, and cancer. They all wear diapers and two are unable to walk. They have no teeth and two must be hand-fed. Darya takes care of everything - washing, dressing, feeding each woman, everyday, 7 days a week, as well as all the cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping that these women require. She has only 3 hours off in the afternoon, at which time she cleans the apartments of two other people, for cash and off the books. On Sundays she uses her hours off to go to mass. Darya is deeply religious and prays every morning and every night. She sends all the money she earns to her husband and two daughters who wait for her in a tiny village in Ukraine. She goes home only once a year, usually in August. Darya is one of thousands of Ukrainian women who work in Italy like this, far from home, taking care of other peoples' dying parents. Bolzano, Italy, 2007.
Darya combs Ottilia's hair just after she's released from the hospital after being diagnosed with in-operable pancreatic cancer. Ottilia is 86 years old. Darya, a remarkable, 54 year-old woman from the Ukraine, has been working as a \\\"badante\\\" (caretaker for the elderly) for the last five years in Bolzano, Italy. Darya takes care not of one, but four sisters - Augusta, 94, Gisella, 84, Elena, 77, and Ottila, 86. She lives in the small apartment with the women, sleeping on a fold-out sofa in the living room. The sisters are severely handicapped, with Parkinson's disease, Alztheimer's, blindness, and cancer. They all wear diapers and two are unable to walk. They have no teeth and two must be hand-fed. Darya takes care of everything - washing, dressing, feeding each woman, everyday, 7 days a week, as well as all the cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping that these women require. She has only 3 hours off in the afternoon, at which time she cleans the apartments of two other people, for cash and off the books. On Sundays she uses her hours off to go to mass. Darya is deeply religious and prays every morning and every night. She sends all the money she earns to her husband and two daughters who wait for her in a tiny village in Ukraine. She goes home only once a year, usually in August. Darya is one of thousands of Ukrainian women who work in Italy like this, far from home, taking care of other peoples' dying parents. Bolzano, Italy, 2007.
Darya combs Ottilia's hair just after she's released from the hospital after being diagnosed with in-operable pancreatic cancer. Ottilia is 86 years old. Darya, a remarkable, 54 year-old woman from the Ukraine, has been working as a "badante" (caretaker for the elderly) for the last five years in Bolzano, Italy. Darya takes care not of one, but four sisters - Augusta, 94, Gisella, 84, Elena, 77, and Ottila, 86. She lives in the small apartment with the women, sleeping on a fold-out sofa in the living room. The sisters are severely handicapped, with Parkinson's disease, Alztheimer's, blindness, and cancer. They all wear diapers and two are unable to walk. They have no teeth and two must be hand-fed. Darya takes care of everything - washing, dressing, feeding each woman, everyday, 7 days a week, as well as all the cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping that these women require. She has only 3 hours off in the afternoon, at which time she cleans the apartments of two other people, for cash and off the books. On Sundays she uses her hours off to go to mass. Darya is deeply religious and prays every morning and every night. She sends all the money she earns to her husband and two daughters who wait for her in a tiny village in Ukraine. She goes home only once a year, usually in August. Darya is one of thousands of Ukrainian women who work in Italy like this, far from home, taking care of other peoples' dying parents. Bolzano, Italy, 2007.