This essay is part of “Survive. Thrive. Evolve: How Two Years of the Pandemic Impacted Us Around the World,” a global HuffPost project featuring individuals writing about how their lives were affected after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following piece originally appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and lightly edited for clarity.
“‘We are here, and we will do everything we possibly can to help’ ― that’s what we wanted to say to every person, to help give them some meaning to all the pain and to find somewhere to place all their suffering.” Gabriella Di Girolamo, director of the health care staff at Piacenza Hospital located in northern Italy, recently told HuffPost Italy. During the first wave of the pandemic, when hundreds of infected people were being admitted to the COVID wards every day, the health care facility spearheaded a one-of-a-kind project to collect and store all of the victims’ personal belongings in the hope of one day returning them to their relatives.
The pandemic hit the hospital hard from February to June 2020, so much so that the staff was forced to completely reorganize the entire facility. “During the first wave, more than 120 people a day were arriving sick with COVID,” explained Di Girolamo. “Within 20 days we found ourselves with all 750 of our beds occupied.” Because of the lack of space and the fears about contagion, patients were admitted alone, without anyone accompanying them. “We had to manage every aspect of finding somewhere to put them ― and their personal items too,” Di Girolamo said.
Initially the hospital opened a “COVID emporium” ― a space where family members could bring pajamas, clean underwear and other essential items to be given to their sick relatives. Then staff began collecting all the patients’ belongings: watches, jewelry, cell phones, a mountain of clothes, as well as dozens and dozens of wedding rings, and as a photo accompanied by a Post-it note with the words, “see you soon.”
The staff put everything in one room, which they called the “personal items room.”
“In the beginning we only needed a few bags to store the items, but within a few days we had nearly 500 containers, along with many other small bags containing valuables,” Di Girolamo said. “We bought in safes to secure patients’ chains, wallets, earrings, and watches. Then we deposited everything in containers with the Civil Protection service.”
When COVID prevention measures were first downgraded in Italy in May 2020, health care workers began to return items to families — and they made a tragic discovery.
“In many cases, there was no one who could retrieve them, because entire families had been killed by the virus,” Di Girolamo said.
The process of returning the items to families is still happening.
“I felt the suffering that people experienced at the moment of separation with my whole being,” Di Girolamo said. “I remember a phone call from a daughter who was looking for several of her mother’s things ― clothing, accessories, jewelry. I carelessly asked her, ‘Your mother took all those things to the hospital?’ And she replied, ‘When she was taken away she didn’t even have time to take them off.’ I felt stupid and insensitive. I realized too late that she was an elderly person who probably took good care of herself and liked wearing the pearl necklace and watch even at home. Another daughter said to me, ‘If you could return even just my mother’s nightgown or her bag of cosmetics, at least I’ll be able to smell her.’ This was the moment I realized that, despite the how difficult it was to return all of the items from both a practical standpoint and an emotional one, we had to move forward with this project. I thought, we owe it to people.”
Another episode that particularly touched Di Girolamo involved a boy who had been adopted and came to retrieve the personal items of his adoptive family, who had all died from COVID.
“We don’t know anything about the boy’s origins, but it’s easy to imagine that he had already experienced difficult separations in his life,” Di Girolamo said. “Now life had once again confronted him with another abandonment. First his family was taken away, then he was given a new one, and then that family was taken away from him too,” she noted.
“To Giovanni, from Pasqualina” and “To Pasqualina, from Giovanni” read the inscriptions on a pair of wedding rings which have become something of a symbol of this “operation” to return objects of sentimental value. “We don’t know whether this married couple died during COVID, or whether they were already deceased and these wedding bands belonged to one of their children, a grandchild or a relative to keep their memory alive,” Di Girolamo said. “We are still looking for a family member who this legacy of love can be returned to.”
Contributions to the working group were also made by Anna Nassani, from the hospital’s mortuary staff, Paola Cella, from the medical services department, and Mirella Gubbelini from the continuing care department.
“The vast majority of the items have been returned, though we’re aware that some things were probably lost in the confusion early in the crisis, or as patients moved between different wards and hospitals,” Di Girolamo explained.
“We want to honor these deaths. It was a defining moment of our civilization,” she added. “Today when I think back to all these moments, I can picture two hands moving apart from each other ― one of a father, child or relative being taken to hospital, and one of the person left behind at home with that feeling of sudden separation. It seemed only right for us to make every possible effort and we did everything we could to meet with the relatives, even if the process took a very long time and it brought back a lot of painful memories for everyone. But it was the right thing to do.”
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