Home Window Garden

Home Window Garden, Maniago

Home Window Garden

This exterior detail of our home in Maniago will always remind me of my Zia (aunt) Milena. She was the gardener in the family, as well as the spinster Aunt who took care of everyone who was born, ill or who lay dying. She was proud of her collection of potted cacti but when she moved to Venice to take care of my widowed Uncle and his children, the collection suffered from the change in her responsibilities.

 The sacrifice that Zia Milena made throughout her life I find captured in this photograph. The absolute solidity of her character and sacrifice is as enduring as the house itself. Plain and unadorned, they both care for and protect the family spawned from this house.