Today Italy remembers its pandemic victims.

The date was not chosen at random: on this day, a year ago, a convoy of army trucks filled with caskets took away the bodies of those who had lost their lives to Covid from Bergamo because its morgue could no longer handle them. (A photo of the convoy moving through Bergamo's empty streets is published here: tg24.sky.it/politica/2021/03/18/draghi-bergamo-giornata-nazionale-vittime-covid ) A reminder of how the virus caught us unprepared and overwhelmed us.

Until recently, Italy was one of the countries with the highest life expectancy in the world. Perhaps a combination of diet, life style, genes, I don't know, but it was not uncommon any more for people, women especially, to live into their 90s. My own mother was a few months short of 93 when she passed away, her second sister reached the age of 92 and the youngest sister just turned 90 this year. Until the pandemic struck she was still an active woman, drove her car (in Naples' hectic traffic, mind you!) went to fetch her grandchildren from school and donated her work to a charitable institution for disabled children. Now, of course, she's confined at home, hoping the vaccine will come and allow her a bit more freedom of movement.

My aunt is one of the lucky ones, though. Today we mourn all the ones, young and old, that the pandemic took from us: not only the 103,432 who died from confirmed covid, but also those who were not tested, those who did not receive proper care because the hospitals were/are overwhelmed, and those who could not overcome the sadness, the loneliness, the loss of their livelihood.

Today is for mourning, Tomorrow we must try and do better at protecting ourselves and those around us. This thing will not be over until it's over for everyone.