Paola: Beyond Words

By Matilde Calamai

In the beautiful town of Pistoia, in Tuscany, forty-eight-year-old Paola is preparing to meet the man who might become her lover. Married with two children, Paola is resigned to living a lonely life separate from her husband, who works in Brazil. And yet she is desperate to experience joy again. As Paola enters her potential lovers office, she faints. In a matter of seconds, her life has been transformed forever.

The victim of a major stroke, Paola is robbed of her ability to speak. Trapped between reality and a timeless dimension where she lives in a world devoid of words and full of indecipherable objects, Paola soon realizes that even the clockonce used for marking days full of dissatisfaction in her life is no longer meaningful. Intent on returning to a normal life, Paola embarks on a journey in search of lost words with the help of a Cuban healing guru, a Jungian analyst, and fi nally a famous ayurvedic nutritionist who could help Paola change everything in her life.

Paola is the poignant tale of a woman who, in the moment of her greatest weakness, must begin a quest to find the courage and inner strength she has been missing her entire life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475987485

Matilde Calamai

Matilde Calamai is a journalist, television presenter, and award-winning author whose paintings have been exhibited in galleries throughout Italy. Matilde currently lives in Italy. This is her fourth book.

Book preview

Paola

BEYOND WORDS

MATILDE CALAMAI

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Paola

Beyond Words

Copyright © 2013 Matilde Calamai.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8747-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8749-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8748-5 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013908159

All the paintings including the cover are done by the author.

Translation by Mattia Elefante.

iUniverse rev. date: 05/14/2013

CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Dedication

to my aunt Paola

Preface

The book Paola explores a problem that many underestimate: changing. Aunt Paola, only forty-eight years old and a person with whom I shared a close bond, suffered a devastating stroke that nearly took her life.

The force with which she fought against death emanated life from her very name. No person was ever so tenacious and positive in the face of death. They had given her very little hope; she was supposed to be paralyzed and mute. But through her positivity and strength she overcame the diagnosis and learned to walk, drive a car, and resume a normal life. Today she’s living a quiet life with her two daughters, and they have opened a children’s shop. People call her the pretty foreigner because, when she speaks, she has a thick Italian accent.

The main character of this book has a completely different life than my aunt’s, but they share a common and strong desire to live. I highlight the difficulties faced by the family of stroke victims, and I describe the odyssey of Paola, the protagonist of the novel, who is a middle-aged woman, married with two children, and professionally established, but possessing a sense of failure. Her marriage nearly crumbled, and she failed to end it due to the fear both of judgment by her mother and of harming her children.

On the eve of her meeting with a new, promising man with whom she could maybe be ready to start a new life, she is hit by a stroke. On one hand she is rescued, escaping death and paralysis of the limbs; on the other hand she is imprisoned by aphasia, which prevents her from communicating with the outside world. This dichotomy prompts her to a deep search into her inner self.

Paola is disappointed by the men in whom she had placed her trust. Thus she starts her journey to find the lost words, a difficult but fascinating one. A journey done in order to discover her true self buried deep inside her—a journey done under the guidance of a speech therapist, as well as a Jungian psychoanalyst and a young doctor and ayurvedic nutritionist, with whom Paola slips into a reciprocated love.

From the narrative we can recognize the deep trust the protagonist has toward life, a woman able to find, in the very moment of her greatest weakness, that courage and that strength she had been missing throughout her life. In Paola many women will be able to recognize themselves, even if the happy ending of the novel may sound a bit fabulous.

Chapter 1

O n April 4, Paola decided to live.

It was a day like many others, but it was the first one to remind one of the beginning of spring—and, with the arrival of this season, a good mood and a will to go out.

That was Paola’s case too.

That morning she had meticulously prepared: she had taken a shower, shaved, spread a coconut-scented cream all over her body, and after having carefully chosen her clothes, put on makeup. She had finished too quickly; the appointment with Michele was at eleven o’clock at his office, and it was nine. The office was not far from her home, in the center of Pistoia. It was a beautiful medieval town near Florence, a bit out of the mass tourism circuit, and thus it was unfairly underrated. They called it The Silent, and it was surrounded by greenery and renowned for its nurseries. It boasted prestigious craftsmen too, and it hosted its little Palio horse race: La Giostra dell’Orso, The Bear Carousel, an equestrian