Maximilian, Blen,
Michael and Nathanael
stories of normalcy #6
Thisstory of normalcy begins with a phone call, a chat between me and Massimiliano, a dad with a heart of gold. I call him, before the photo shoot, to let him tell me something about the wonderful family I am going to photograph in my next reportage.
I like this story, because I talk to him and his wife, Blen, on speakerphone while they walk, on a day off from work, at Vallere Park.
The atmosphere is relaxed, we speak in English (Blen is originally from Ethiopia) and Italian (“my” Italian, 😉).
The main voice is that of Maximilian, loving dad and husband, head of the family who loves cooking, his children, and his beautiful wife Blen. He tells me that they met while he was on a trip to Ethiopia about 10 years ago… and it all started from there, the beginning of a wonderful family!
When asked, “Have you always wanted to be parents?” Blen replies decisively that yes, of course, she has always wanted to be a mom. Maximilian laughs and melts her heart with these words, “To me, the idea of being a father came after I met her.”
A family where there is love, fun, cuddles, but also a family that lives a different normalcy because of dad’s job: train conductor for Frecciarossa, his are strange hours.
“I do a particular job, I’m a train conductor, I have particular hours, our family doesn’t have a classical routine… the routine is that when I’m at home I take care of the children’s things, when I’m not there Blen, my wife, does everything.”
– Then he goes on, telling me about the moments of sharing with the children – “In our normalcy, on weekends or during the week, depending on when they are there, we go to the park together, take trips, hikes, walks… lately we often go to the Decathlon courts, play basketball together…” – pauses and then out comes a thunderous (and very tender) laugh –
“Of the four of us, Mom in basketball is the best, as the saying goes, she has the hot hand.”
“We are not a winter family — in the summer and spring months, we walk, take trips to the mountains, picnics. We started last year to do them with other moms as well. and kindergarten dad, the picnic should be rediscovered, it has great value, it’s a nice time to share, to be together outdoors!
Occasionally, when we’re all there in the evening, we pretend we’re at the movies-it’s a tradition that began with the lockdown, which we still carry on to this day-popcorn and Disney movies, then everyone on the couch!”
I ask him about the children, who are 7 and 4 years old–one is in elementary school and the little one is in kindergarten: “have diametrically opposite characters, but they play together, they keep each other company. This is very nice!
“These two babies are “wretched” in eating, they eat few things… I love to cook and in our house we really eat everything, Ethiopian cuisine, ethnic cuisine, I really like to cook, in the next life I will be the chef of a trattoria! We range from Greek to Thai. If you can the cuisine is varied, not just typical things … let’s say 70% is classic, for example we make pizza at home, the kids help me. Well, they make more pies actually, the little one is like me as a baby, he’s dangerous in the kitchen, but it’s a good time we have together! “my wife.“
We talk about how important it is to preserve the memory of certain moments, and Maximilian tells me that just yesterday he was thinking about how quickly children grow up…
“Yesterday my oldest, Michael, went on a field trip with the school, it felt strange…I look back and think about when he was little…time flies and the flow of time is very relative.
One last question, to let them finish their walk in the park. I ask what it is like for them to be parents, I am curious to know the opinion of other people who are parents like me as well:
“Parenting is natural for her, I’m more of a hypochondriac.” – Laughs! – “Blen is the more pragmatic one, me, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at us, I’m the more mama’s boy with kids… however, it’s something that comes naturally, you just learn it as you go along, every day. With the 2nd child it’s easier!”
