They have been baptized the “stones of the smile”. They found them in the garden, in the waiting rooms, on the chairs and on the benches: the patients of the Busonera hospital in Padua but also of the headquarters of the Veneto Oncological Institute of Castelfranco discovered colored stones, decorated with many shades and with phrases of encouragement, painted by anonymous authors. It seems that the artists who created and laid them throughout the hospital area were inspired by the Facebook group “A stone for a smile”, an initiative that was born during the pandemic to give moments of amazement and wonder to perfect unknown.
Gnomes, flowers, fish, frogs, angels, shamrocks, hearts decorated with pencils, markers, brushes, words of support and comfort. Often the stones they are only looked at and not touched, even if no one has established any rules, and indeed, it almost seems that the artists who painted them did so with the intent of giving them away. They often come too photographed and posted on social networks.
«The history of the stones of the smile is a mystery. It seems that someone decorates them, writes phrases such as: “This stone is for you”, and scatters them around the park », says Enrica, patient of the Veneto Oncology Institute. “I found one in the small shelter where there is the pedestrian crossing at the exit of the Busonera hospital, I didn’t get it because I liked the idea of someone smiling how I smiled to see him. Shortly after, however, it was gone ».
«Once there were messages enclosed in a bottle, entrusted to the waves of the sea. Today it is not unusual for us to run into these pebbles, which are at the same time messages and messengers of hope»Says Patrizia Benini, director general of the Veneto Oncological Institute – Irccs. “Basically, stone is synonymous with origin, and it reminds us without superstructures that in this world each of us is a pebble called to give the best of himself, in terms of color, brightness, happiness, thus creating virtuous circles of positivity that can only do good. In health, as in sickness ».
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