La tisi le accordò poco

La fanciulla ha una storia romantica e tragica. “Thezi – racconta mio padre - era la più cara amica di mia madre: sposò, quando già si temeva che dovesse morire, un elegantissimo (e, direi, generosissimo!) ufficiale di cavalleria della Galizia austriaca (ora Polonia). Morì non so quanto tempo dopo le nozze, non credo molto”.

Thezi forse Dahl

Mi sembra di capire che la malattia fosse la tubercolosi. C’è ancora un connotato maledetto nella tisi.

“Sai come si chiamava Thezi di cognome?” “Credo Dahl – dice mio padre - se ricordo bene aveva un fratello che poi sarebbe stato ambasciatore austriaco e che andai a trovare a Vienna con Zia Carola quando andai a Baden nel '52, dopo la maturità. Posso, se vuoi, chiedere a Stefan (Stefan Lehne, dei Lehne citati in un precedente post), che pure è stato un diplomatico austriaco”. Gli rispondo rapida: ”Sì, per favore”. E vediamo che cosa ne uscirà.

Mio padre non perde tempo e scrive a Stefan. Ma non ha notizie.
La ricerca va avanti. Prova con Evi. “Dear Eva, can you perhaps help me and Ilda - who is deeply intrigued in family's stories - in loosing this problem? Stefan answered me that he doesn't know anything of an Austrian Ambassador called Dahlen or something like that. But I dare say that I payed a visit to him during my staying in Austria in 1952, and that he was the brother of my mother's dearest friend Thezi, whom she wept all her life along. I send a photograph of Thezi with next signal”.

Ed Evi risponde al volo. Della povera Thezi non ha notizie, ma il cognome Dahlen non le è nuovo. “A name HERMANN DAHLEN – scrive Evi - ( I think Baron Dahlen ) suddenly came up in my memory. I know he was a friend of the family, ( especially the Lehnes I think ) but I don’t remember him or whether he was an Ambassador. I never met or heard of Thezi, I also did not know her from the photograph. Tante Carola naturally is very dear to me, and it is a good photo”.


Ma Evi ha tante cose da aggiungere. Le è molto piaciuto mio padre in versione “pezzetto di burro” e pensa che la foto sia stata scattata a Baden da zia Baukje, un’amica olandese, che ricorre spesso nei racconti familiari. Ma lascio la parola a Evi. “I meant to write to Ilde about that sweet photo of ‘little Renato’ and the ‘great musician Renato’, but I had problems with my computer. So I am writing now to you. Please could you tell her how much I loved that photo of the little Renato, because I think I was in Baden when it was taken by Tante Baukje, the Dutch friend of the family. – a very good photographer, I think she also may have taken the photo of Carola” .

E si scoprono anche antichi fidanzamenti. Zia Baukje, una ricca ereditiera, era stata fidanzata con Heina Lehne. Si erano poi lasciati ma erano rimasti amici. “She was not a blood relation – dice Evi - but lived with Tante Anni Harmens, who was related to the family ( how I don’t know ) Baukje was a rich heiress and a great friend of the Lehnes. She became engaged to Heina Lehne, but they split up after a while. ( She was actually quite a bit older them him ) but they remained good friends”.

Evi è anche felice di ritrovare il nonno Guido in foto. “Do you know, I must tell you how happy I was every time I recognized Guido Ferraro your father. Even in the pictures as a young man - I recognized him at once, because I had a very great affection for him . Really loved him. He was so incredibly kind and a real gentleman”. Il nonno che non riusciva a capire perché il cielo in Austria non fosse blu. “He always said when he was in Baden : ‘why is the sky not blue here?’ To us the sky WAS very blue, but to him, who was used to the Neapolitan sky, it seemed to be somehow like grey”.