Ciao Mama

thats how Laura ended the phone call last night, she is in Italy staying with a family as their summer nanny-type person. They are treating her like royalty and spoiling her rotten so wonderful to know, BUT, and this is a BIG but, even bigger than mine! I am having a major freak out, I know she is a big girl and having a wonderful experience but I am her mother and I worry. I have always kept a lid on my paranoia for her sake and my own mental health but yesterday it came pouring out... my baby is in a foreign country all by herself, she doesn't speak the language or know anyone, add to that she is young and beautiful and my heart just stops. What if something happens to her? How will I know? I can't get there in less than 24 hours if she needs me. Ever since she planned her trip I have thought about my school friend Susan who went to England to teach when she was 25, she became ill and her parents and sister flew to her bedside and arrived just before she died.. ugh morbid thoughts I know but always there in the back of my mind. The parents of the backpackers who were murdered are in my thoughts too, the sadness and devastation on their faces haunt me. The nephew of a friend died in Venice after falling from an escalator in the most stupid accident ever, the 20 year old who was killed in Greece just this week... on and on and on I want to turn off my brain and never watch the news again.. But instead I laugh and talk to my daughter and tell her be careful, I love you... Ciao Bella