Wednesday 30th August – afternoonI ring Zia’s bell. It seems to take a long time for her to answer. I ring again. She eventually appears.
“Oh, Zia, how are you?”
“Me have pain in back today. I clean my big tomato pignata in the garden this morning.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Zia. Have you taken anything for your back?”
“No, I take no thing. I no trust doctor.”
“No wonder you have backache, Zia. Did you carry that heavy cauldron out to the garden yourself?”
“Yes, I roll pignata out to garden.”
Zia had always been wary of doctors seeing them as a notch higher than the police for wanting to interfere in people’s lives.
“Do you need help with your tomato jars?”
“Yes, I happy you here now.”
Zia makes tomato sauce every year for winter. She boils tomatoes, in her huge cauldron, then str
