My children came to visit me on Mother’s Day. I had the day mapped out. When they arrived we went to the cemetery to place flowers on my stepmother’s grave. Then we drove to Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park and placed flowers on a bench in remembrance of my mother. Some years ago my father had the Park & Rec install a memorial plaque on it. Then we went to my father’s house and cooked dinner.
When I told my children the after dinner entertainment was a movie I had rented for them, they laughed as if it was a conspiracy. “OK, Mom. It’s your day so stuff us with what you like.”
IL Postino (The Postman) was a 1994 Italian movie about a simple postman in a fishing village who befriended the poet Pablo Neruda. The unlikely friendship led to a desire for the postman to write poetry, with the encouragement of the great poet. Massimo Troisi (the postman) delivered a memorable performance. It was his last film. He passed away ten hours after the final scenes were shot, of heart failure.
I don’t know how much my children got out of the movie. They were more moved when I told them about the death of Massimo. But to me, when one human being elevates the mind of another and both find value in the exchange, it is intensely beautiful. Like a starburst, life is changed, no matter great or small.
Greatest movie line ever, from Mario to Neruda, “A poem doesn’t belong to the man who wrote it, but to the man who needs it.”