La lettera arrivata in ritardo (The letter that arrived late)
QCER B1242 parole
In March a letter arrived at my parents' house with a stamp from 1986 and my grandmother's name on it. Nobody in the post office could explain where it had been for thirty-eight years.
My grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it. It was two pages long and it was from her sister, who had emigrated to Switzerland and who died even earlier, in 2004. The letter said that the winter had been hard, that the factory was closing, and that she was thinking of coming home in the summer.
She never came home. The two sisters wrote to each other for years and then, at some point in the late eighties, they stopped. Nobody in my family knows why, and now there is nobody left to ask.
My father read the letter twice and then he did something I did not expect: he photocopied it and sent a copy to his cousin in Zurich, the son of the woman who wrote it. His cousin phoned four days later. They had not spoken since a funeral in 1998.
They now talk on the first Sunday of every month. My father is seventy-three and his cousin is sixty-nine, and neither of them has said a word about why the two sisters stopped writing. My father says it does not matter any more, and that the letter arrived exactly when it was useful, which is not the same as arriving on time.
Parole che forse non conosci
- stampfrancobollo
- post officeufficio postale
- to emigrateemigrare
- to photocopyfotocopiare
- funeralfunerale
- on timein orario
Domande
Si risponde con il testo davanti. Non è memoria: è capire.
The letter had a stamp from ___.
1986 — A stamp from 1986, e nessuno alle poste sa spiegare dov'è stata per trentotto anni.
Why did the writer's father open the letter?
Because his mother, to whom it was addressed, had died — Bisogna unire due frasi: la lettera era intestata alla nonna, e la nonna è morta nel 2011. Il SO di «my grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it» è la cucitura.
The woman who wrote the letter came home that summer.
False — Falso: nella lettera dice che ci sta PENSANDO, e il paragrafo dopo comincia con «she never came home». Pensare non è fare.
What did the father do that surprised the writer?
He sent a copy of the letter to his cousin in Zurich — L'ha fotocopiata e l'ha mandata al figlio della donna che l'aveva scritta. Quattro giorni dopo, il cugino ha telefonato.
How long had the two cousins gone without speaking?
About twenty-six years — Il testo non dà gli anni: bisogna sottrarre. Non si parlavano da un funerale del 1998 e la lettera arriva a marzo di quest'anno, trentotto anni dopo il 1986, cioè il 2024. Dal 1998 al 2024 sono ventisei.
What does the father mean by 'it arrived when it was useful, which is not the same as on time'?
That the letter was late, but it did something good anyway — Separa due idee che confondiamo spesso: puntuale e utile. È arrivata tardi per le due sorelle, che sono morte, e in tempo per i due cugini, che ora si parlano ogni mese.