A story about a cherry

I would like to tell you a story about the importance of a cherry. In the early 20th century an Italian family emigrated to the US. They had a daughter who grew up hearing about this wonderful country far away and when she grew old enough she decided to visit Italy and see this country she had heard so much about. Her name was Cecilia and she did not speak a word of Italian as her parents had fully embraced their new country and wanted their children to exceed in English.

I don´t know what year Cecilia arrived in Italy but Benito Mussolini was not yet a dictator and fascism had not yet taken control over the country so it must have been before 1922. Italy was all she had expected, with all the flavours of long time cherished dreams and it didn’t take long for her to find her soul mate. She married and decided to stay in Italy. In those days deciding to stay in a country as Italy with all of your family living in the US was a most definite decision. Transatlantic flight carrying passengers didn’t start until the middle of the 20th century and she most likely arrived on the transatlantic Italia Line, a ship travelling between the United States and Italy in the beginning of the century.

After Mussolini came to power life in Italy changed. Anyone opposing Mussolini was brutally silenced and Mussolini saw many as his enemies. Being an American in a fascist country was often not seen with positive eyes but Cecilia had made her choice. She had become a mother and Italy had become her home. In the end of the 30s the Second World War broke out with Mussolini supporting Hitler and Germany. Really hard times arrived for Cecilia, her family and many others. But, the war ended and contact was once again established with the family on the other side of the ocean. 80 million people died in the Second World War in Europe and so much was destroyed.

Still, life was turning for the better and Cecilia had become a grandmother. Her granddaughter had been named after her and together they used to open the big cross-Atlantic parcels that arrived from the United States now and then. They contained sliced pineapple and red cocktail cherries in cans – things that was not yet to be found in Italy in the 50s. Cecilia used to bake a special cake with a cream topping. In the middle she would put a red cocktail cherry and her granddaughter, little Cecilia, would be the one who got the cherry - a cherry that would leave a red mark on the white cream topping. Maybe the cherry was a reminder of loved once far away, maybe it carried the hope that life would get better? For little Cecilia I think it showed her that there were more worlds to explore and that love can be transferred in the shape of a cherry.

I was told this story a few days ago by little Cecilia, today a woman with two grown up children. We sat down to have a drink after taking part in a course in Successful Management of EU projects on Cyprus (a course with participants from all over Europe). Some of us got a cherry in our drinks but Cecilia didn´t get one which she did not like. So, she told us her story and obviously got our cherries.

I spent one week on Cyprus this summer with participants from Greece, Slovakia, Rumania, Iceland (living in Denmark), Austria, Germany, Sweden and Italy learning about project management. I am sure we all learned more about project management, but as so often in these international groups, I think the main lesson learned was something else.