L'Aquila

The news from L’Aquila this week continues to get worse as the death toll rises and hope fades for any more survivors. The heart-wrenching scenes of horror and grief were lent a quantum of relief yesterday when a 98-year-old Maria D’Antuono was pulled from the rubble after 30 hours of interment. How did she pass the time? She got busy with her hook and wool and did a bit of crocheting. Not only is this testament to the amazing lady’s strength, but also to the way craft can see us through some bad times. Through every personal crisis in my life I’ve always had some knitting on the go, a way to switch off and produce something positive in a bad time. In fact my craft output often intensifies during dark days - go figure. Don’t need to preach to the converted - anyone reading this probably feels the same and I don’t want to be flippant about a tragedy, so enough said.

Meantime, Red Cross are running an appeal for the victims.