I started working as a seamstress in Padua when I was still very young. Every morning, before the sun was fully up, I got on my bicycle and rode to the bus stop. I would leave the bicycle there and wait for the bus that took me into the city. The journey took two hours to get there, and in the evening, another two hours to get back home. Four hours a day, every day, just travelling.
It was not easy. In winter my hands were frozen on the handlebars, and in summer the bus was hot and crowded. Some evenings I was so tired that I fell asleep with my head against the window. But I never complained. I had to go to work, and in those days you simply did what had to be done.
The work itself taught me a lot. I learned to be precise, to be patient and to take pride in every stitch. A dress is made of many small details, and if one of them is wrong, the whole dress is wrong. I think that lesson stayed with me for the rest of my life.
Then I met my future husband, and after we got married, everything changed. I no longer had to make that long journey to Padua. I found work as a dressmaker in a little shop in my hometown, just a few minutes from home. For the first time, I had time to breathe.
When my daughters were born, I wanted to work closer to them, in a way that let me look after my family. So, together with my husband's sister, I decided to open a small dressmaking business of our own. We had very little at the beginning: a couple of sewing machines, a lot of fabric and a lot of courage. We worked long hours, often late into the night, especially before weddings and holidays, when everyone wanted a new dress.
It was hard work, but it was ours. Little by little, customers began to trust us and come back, and they told their friends about us. Seeing a woman try on a dress we had made, and watching her smile in the mirror, was the most beautiful reward. In the end, the business brought us a great deal of satisfaction.
After many years, I finally retired. Today, when I think back to that young girl cycling to the bus stop in the dark, I feel proud of her. She didn't know where the road would take her, but she kept going, one day at a time.