Happiness, as Such by Natalia Ginzburg

Author:Natalia Ginzburg
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811228008
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2019-06-19T23:25:34+00:00

13

January 8, 1971

Dear Michele,

Yesterday was the reading of your father’s will. Lillino had been holding onto it. Your father wrote it right after he got sick. I knew nothing about it. Me, Lillino, Matilde, Angelica, Elio, and Viola were all in the lawyer’s office. Oreste didn’t come because he had a work conflict at the newspaper.

Your father left you a series of paintings, the ones he did between 1945 and 1955, and the Via San Sebastianello house, and the tower. I get the impression your sisters are going to come out of this with much less than you. They’ll get those properties near Spoleto, many of which have been sold off, but there are some left. Matilde and Cecilia are going to get a piece of furniture, that baroque, Piemonte credenza. Matilde immediately observed that Cecilia gets the better end of that deal because Matilde wouldn’t know what to do with a credenza. Can you just imagine. What joy will half-blind, decrepit Cecilia get from a credenza?

As for the Via San Sebastianello house, you’ll need to let us know what you want to do about it: sell it, rent it, or live there. The architect has already begun work on the tower, so that’s all set. There are huge expenses associated with the projects your father contracted. Lillino says that he and I should go to the tower to see what’s already been done. Lillino has never seen the tower but says that there’s no way it was a good investment because you can’t get there by car unless you build a road into the rock. The only way to get there now is via a steep footpath along the cliff. I have little desire to go rock climbing with Lillino.

I wish you would come here and decide. I can’t make these decisions for you. How could I decide anything if I have no idea where and how you want to live.

Your mother

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