L’anziano come custode della memoria familiare

The question of transmission of family memory offers many points for reflection. The article proposes an exploration of the theme by combining a dual focus: addressed to the family and its intertwining relationship, but also to the key figure of elderly. The memory will certainly be understood as the passage of an inheritance, handed down from generation to generation, but also as an act that benefits the elder himself, making a special educational function. In this sense, family can rediscover itself as a place of memory, welcoming the elderly, giving a space for speech and listening, which can also become a space for the enhancement of an existential path. Recognizing that the elder still has something to say is a fundamental condition to testify that the plot of his story hasn’t been intertwined in vain: it can still represent an exemplary reference.