«Yes, I returned to Decimomannu to vote». Neither her age, 98 years, nor the distance, over a thousand kilometers from Nova Gorica (Slovenia) where she has lived for many years to her hometown, scared her. Mercede Porcu, without saying anything to her children and grandchildren, took the plane and the taxi and on Friday showed up at the town hall in Decimomannu to collect the ballot paper: «I received the mayor's invitation to cast my vote, and here I am here. On this occasion, 25 years after the last time, I was able to return to my beloved country. I'm really happy."
The protagonist
Born in Decimomannu in April 1926, she had several brothers, including the late Orazio Porcu, a blind parish organist. She married very young to a Slovenian soldier from the Sassari Brigade musical band. After the first years spent in Decimomannu, where their first child was born, they all moved to the border between Friuli and Slovenia, where he still lives together with a nephew.
Travel
Mercede Porcu is registered in the Aire lists as an Italian citizen residing abroad. Once she received the "invitation to vote" postcard with the handwritten signature in blue pen of the mayor of Decimomannu Monica Cadeddu, the almost centenarian did her own thing. Without saying anything to anyone, so much so that she was reported missing from Slovenia. The police quickly tracked her down and tracked down her nephew, who hosted her.
Carlo Manca
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