I never thought of that. The idea makes me feel a little better, I guess. You're right: the tragedy would have been even greater if she survived a day or two under those bushes before suffocating from the fluid in her lungs or dying of thirst.
This happened years ago, but at the time, I literally had nightmares and for a while I kept a lookout while riding along that road south of Ostia. I don't race bikes any longer, but it still feels vivid when I pass that area in a car.
Fantastic piece. Writing at its highest level, and noblest service: cliché busting, public-informing, eye-opening. Thank you so much for this. I need more of this side of Rome and Lazio and Italy at large. Più!
Thank you, Monica! As you'd guess, this was an especially difficult piece to write. Italy has extraordinary warmth and humanity, but also shadows that most outsiders don’t see.
Thank you! It was a very draining essay to write -- much more than I expected. I'm supposed to be working on an article about EU politics as part of my day job and I have mostly been starring across the room since I finished this post.
It's been 20+ years and it still feels devastating to me. I think one of my weak points as a journalist is that I sometimes feel emotionally connected with people I write about. The events here clearly weren't related to journalism but the same thing that happens when I write about wars, natural disasters, poverty happened here.
Being emotionally connected is how we stay human. Please don't think of it as a weakness that you need discard. You may have to avoid your feelings for while writing the piece, but please take time to feel them and process them. Your humanness is what makes your writing powerful.
Wow. I'm sitting in my chair having just read this dispatch, my heart racing and my mind processing the story you told. So sad. I felt like I was with you. Your descriptive writing is a gift, even when delivering sobering content. This impactful story delineated in those paragraphs will live with you for a long time. I know it's going to with me, and I wasn't even there. I am really impressed the police sent someone to guard you house. It really gave me an appreciation for their care of the public. Wow.
I'm glad it had that kind of impact on you! I was a little uneasy about telling this story but it seems to be resonating with some readers. It's tragic, but I'm glad it's having an impact.
The story of the kind-hearted and mother-loving police captain could have been flushed out in a stand-alone essay. That was the original (admittedly vague) plan, and then I'd link back to this essay and explain the role he played here. But I like the way he fit in this essay..
If it was fiction I'd have laughed.......but it's not so instead I have to cry. I'm not sure that there are many people that would've taken the time or care the way you did.
I've always had a hard time keeping my emotional distance when it comes to less fortunate people. It happens to me with work covering wars or earthquakes or extreme poverty. A few months back, in an essay on migrants, I told a story about a migrant I met in Mali and then saw again a few times in Rome. Sometimes I'm happy not to have become calloused. But it does weigh on me a lot. Good or bad, though, it's who I am.
It feels quite humane to have such a dark story told with such compassion. So different than what we get every day in a newspaper. We need more of this. The human side of tragedy. Thanks, Eric.
Thank you, Alecia. If I wrote about these events for a newspaper it'd have to be straight-up reporting -- who, what, where, when, etc.
But I'm thankful that many years after the events described here happened to have an outlet like this newsletter to tell stories the way I want to tell them.
Eric, I hope you don't mind, I just skipped the part you described to me and read the second part again. It's interesting that both kinds of stories don't get enough space, the stories of the ones who don't make it, society's invisibles whose stories go untold but also the events that show that in all this, there is still so much good and thoughtfulness in humanity.
The second part meaning the part about the police captain? I agree that part I a small encouragement. After we talked about it, I decided to weave it into the story of the poor woman who died rather than to have it be a separate sidebar. But that probably made it more difficult for you to pick the part you wanted to read.
How much of what happens in a big city is hidden from us? How many tragedies. This is a terrible (but well written) story I think everyone should read.
A tragic event and your telling of it brought so many emotions to the surface. I can't say I enjoyed the story, but I admire the skill with which you told it.
Stopping and trying to help didn't end up changing things much in this case. But, as another commenter wrote, at least the poor woman was allowed to die with some dignity and not face down in the dirt off the side of the road. It really is incredibly tragic.
That is so horrifying about the exploited and murdered sex worker. Murdered an “Under performing girl as an example to the others.“ I really hope there’s an afterlife where people that do such things suffer for eternity. Very upsetting, although I’m glad you wrote it.
A friend who is not religious once told me she wished there was a heaven so that when a child asked what happened to a loved one who passed away she could say he or she had "gone to heaven" without feeling hypocritical.
I'm with you on the flip side of that, too, that there should be a hell where people like that "papone" can suffer. The whole idea of reducing a living person with hopes and dreams and fears to "an under-performing girl" is monstrous.
I worry that this kind of cruelty is built into the human condition. But I hope you're right that it will eventually be vanquished. As abolitionist Theodore Parker said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
So sad, but I'm so glad you helped get her to a hospital bed so she didn't have to die in the dirt.
I never thought of that. The idea makes me feel a little better, I guess. You're right: the tragedy would have been even greater if she survived a day or two under those bushes before suffocating from the fluid in her lungs or dying of thirst.
This happened years ago, but at the time, I literally had nightmares and for a while I kept a lookout while riding along that road south of Ostia. I don't race bikes any longer, but it still feels vivid when I pass that area in a car.
It must have been haunting but you really did a good thing. She was with people and in a bed being cared for. The alternative would be unimaginable!
That's some consolation. Poor woman ... I'm sure there are many more stories that are untold.
Fantastic piece. Writing at its highest level, and noblest service: cliché busting, public-informing, eye-opening. Thank you so much for this. I need more of this side of Rome and Lazio and Italy at large. Più!
Thank you, Monica! As you'd guess, this was an especially difficult piece to write. Italy has extraordinary warmth and humanity, but also shadows that most outsiders don’t see.
I bet this kind of thing happens everywhere. It's so easy to ignore. Good writing, yes, definitely.
Yes, agreed. This clearly wasn't a one-off case.
I think sometimes that what we see in the world is the tip of the iceberg and it's the ugliest parts that are hidden beneath.
Such powerful stories, so beautifully written. A great and tragic piece.
Thank you! It was a very draining essay to write -- much more than I expected. I'm supposed to be working on an article about EU politics as part of my day job and I have mostly been starring across the room since I finished this post.
That's a devastating story. And a powerful piece of journalism.
It's been 20+ years and it still feels devastating to me. I think one of my weak points as a journalist is that I sometimes feel emotionally connected with people I write about. The events here clearly weren't related to journalism but the same thing that happens when I write about wars, natural disasters, poverty happened here.
Being emotionally connected is how we stay human. Please don't think of it as a weakness that you need discard. You may have to avoid your feelings for while writing the piece, but please take time to feel them and process them. Your humanness is what makes your writing powerful.
This is terribly upsetting. Well told, I mean, but I literally feel sick.
Wow. I'm sitting in my chair having just read this dispatch, my heart racing and my mind processing the story you told. So sad. I felt like I was with you. Your descriptive writing is a gift, even when delivering sobering content. This impactful story delineated in those paragraphs will live with you for a long time. I know it's going to with me, and I wasn't even there. I am really impressed the police sent someone to guard you house. It really gave me an appreciation for their care of the public. Wow.
I'm glad it had that kind of impact on you! I was a little uneasy about telling this story but it seems to be resonating with some readers. It's tragic, but I'm glad it's having an impact.
The story of the kind-hearted and mother-loving police captain could have been flushed out in a stand-alone essay. That was the original (admittedly vague) plan, and then I'd link back to this essay and explain the role he played here. But I like the way he fit in this essay..
It made me shiver.
Horrible story. Thank you for telling it, in the memory of the poor woman and her stolen life.
I like the term you used: "stolen life." Very accurate.
If it was fiction I'd have laughed.......but it's not so instead I have to cry. I'm not sure that there are many people that would've taken the time or care the way you did.
I've always had a hard time keeping my emotional distance when it comes to less fortunate people. It happens to me with work covering wars or earthquakes or extreme poverty. A few months back, in an essay on migrants, I told a story about a migrant I met in Mali and then saw again a few times in Rome. Sometimes I'm happy not to have become calloused. But it does weigh on me a lot. Good or bad, though, it's who I am.
It feels quite humane to have such a dark story told with such compassion. So different than what we get every day in a newspaper. We need more of this. The human side of tragedy. Thanks, Eric.
Thank you, Alecia. If I wrote about these events for a newspaper it'd have to be straight-up reporting -- who, what, where, when, etc.
But I'm thankful that many years after the events described here happened to have an outlet like this newsletter to tell stories the way I want to tell them.
Eric, I hope you don't mind, I just skipped the part you described to me and read the second part again. It's interesting that both kinds of stories don't get enough space, the stories of the ones who don't make it, society's invisibles whose stories go untold but also the events that show that in all this, there is still so much good and thoughtfulness in humanity.
The second part meaning the part about the police captain? I agree that part I a small encouragement. After we talked about it, I decided to weave it into the story of the poor woman who died rather than to have it be a separate sidebar. But that probably made it more difficult for you to pick the part you wanted to read.
Certainly but I needed the reprieve.
How much of what happens in a big city is hidden from us? How many tragedies. This is a terrible (but well written) story I think everyone should read.
Thanks, AMT!
💔
A tragic event and your telling of it brought so many emotions to the surface. I can't say I enjoyed the story, but I admire the skill with which you told it.
What a thoughtful reaction! Thank you. I put extra work into this one, but a lot of it was emotionally powering through the memories after many years.
A beautiful piece and it made me cry. The fate of these women, and so many of them—I have seen them standing on the roadsides…
I love that you stopped and cared and tried to help.
Thank you, Gabrielle!
Stopping and trying to help didn't end up changing things much in this case. But, as another commenter wrote, at least the poor woman was allowed to die with some dignity and not face down in the dirt off the side of the road. It really is incredibly tragic.
So tragic. But you tried and it could have gone another way, no way of knowing until we try.
That is so horrifying about the exploited and murdered sex worker. Murdered an “Under performing girl as an example to the others.“ I really hope there’s an afterlife where people that do such things suffer for eternity. Very upsetting, although I’m glad you wrote it.
A friend who is not religious once told me she wished there was a heaven so that when a child asked what happened to a loved one who passed away she could say he or she had "gone to heaven" without feeling hypocritical.
I'm with you on the flip side of that, too, that there should be a hell where people like that "papone" can suffer. The whole idea of reducing a living person with hopes and dreams and fears to "an under-performing girl" is monstrous.
Thanks for bringing some of the darkness that flows underneath us all to light. It's the only way we'll defeat it. Eventually.
I worry that this kind of cruelty is built into the human condition. But I hope you're right that it will eventually be vanquished. As abolitionist Theodore Parker said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."