Monthly Archives: May 2019

Belonging in Anghiari: Merryl Drakard

For the past couple of years, I have been conducting interviews with people who live in Anghiari. Some are conducted in Italian, some in English, and they are all published in both languages on this blog. I am in Anghiari at the moment, and have been doing more interviews which will be posted in due course. This interview, however, was done last year, but the editing has only just been completed. In the light of my most recent post, it was a coincidence that Merryl insisted I take photos of the library rather than her.

Belonging in Anghiari: Merryl Drakard

 Merryl comes from England and has been living in Anghiari for over 30 years. She is highly respected for her voluntary work in the library, which is located in the renaissance part of town. The library is an important community centre, hosting events which include talks by locals and others from all over Italy about their writing and research. And every week Merryl runs a tandem there, in which Italian and English speakers have conversations switching between languages. I interviewed Merryl in the library, in a room with walls covered in fresoes. The interview was conducted in English, and Mirella Alessio transcribed it and translated this edited version into Italian.20190522_102353_resized

 I grew up in southern England, in the countryside just north of London, in a Roman town called St Albans, and I went to a girls’ high school. My father had a family business in London and he commuted; my mother did voluntary work. I had 2 older brothers… grandparents, family around, normal happy family …. I went to art school for a year, then I dropped out and went to work for a graphic designer. Then I worked free-lance for a while, in London … it was really hard.

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Meeting

 

During my stay here in Anghiari, I am learning anew the significance of Martin Buber’s claim that ‘all real living is meeting’. On reflection, what makes life here meaningful for me here is the quality of the encounters I have. It’s what I often write about in these posts. When an encounter has the quality of a meeting, I come away from it feeling quite simply happy and alive.20190511_114413_1558160478716_resized

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A Day of Sun

Everyone had something to say about it. The sun had appeared, it felt like spring today. This, after days of extremely cold weather, winds, rain. Anghiari has not had the extreme weather that has hit much of Italy, because it is sheltered by the surrounding foothills of the Apennines. However, people say they have never experienced weather like this before in May. And, they have been unable to do the spring planting in their kitchen gardens.20190516_120307_resized

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The artisans’ show and market

 

Everyday life continues well for me here in Anghiari. Every day, I have engaging encounters and conversations, connections become deeper. I am meeting new people, making new friends; and, I have begun interviewing people again, on the theme of belonging. People give so generously in these interviews (which will appear at a later date on this blog). Of course, many of my interesting conversations happen because I am a visitor, but I would describe some of them as truly ‘everyday’, happening with people whom I see in an everyday sort of way.

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