“He called me on Thursday morning, it was very early, he'd never called at that time. She had managed to dictate the last chapter of her book on gestation for others, a job she was particularly fond of. He wanted you to know he'd made it. And he whispered to me, 'doctor, now I can go' . A few hours later she left.'
Speaking in an interview with Corriere is Fabio Calabrò , director of medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute of Regina Elena in Rome, who followed Michela Murgia in her illness.
The doctor had made a pact with her: " She would be free to give up the treatment when the medicines prevented her from being what she had always been ."
In his last months of life, Murgia tried to write as much as possible: «I would say that he faced cancer as an opportunity, never as a condemnation . In the last few weeks he could no longer move, but he dictated pages and pages with incredible clarity. And she was also free when she accepted radiotherapy, the hair cut that she shared with the public, she needed to conquer, days, weeks ».
And that phone call, a few hours before he died, "was his way of reaffirming his freedom once again: now I'm done, I can go ".
The doctor also recounted their first meeting: «I was expecting a grumpy, argumentative woman, perhaps even enraged by what was happening to her. But I perceived in her a look and a welcome that I would never have expected, I was struck by her sweetness ».
(Unioneonline/L)