Most people have never heard of ex-votos, so I was surprised when dark-haired little Anna, aged five, interrupted me by pulling at my trousers and whispering, “I need one of those”.
I was asking her mother, Nina, whether the Georgian church in via dei Serragli had any ex-votos, the pictures nailed up in church to thank God for answering a prayer. Later, when Anna had told me her story, I agreed that she really needed an ex-voto. Jesus had given her even more than she had asked for and she had to say thank you. This is her story.
There is a small community of Georgian immigrants in Florence and, a few years ago, Nina and her twin sister, Nana, came to Tuscany looking for work. Nina sings in the Georgian church choir every Sunday and it was there that she met her husband. They married and both found work on a farm near Greve. After a few years, Anna was born. When she was four, she went to the local school, and all should have been happy and harmonious, but there was one thing missing: a girl called Taco, two years younger than Anna. Taco was Nana’s daughter and the two families had lived together until Nana decided to go back to Georgia. Anna felt alone and abandoned. She adored Taco, had helped look after her as a baby, and was desperate with unhappiness when Taco and Nana left.
Anna could not stop thinking about Taco, especially at bedtime. She tried to talk to her by telephone, but it never worked. Taco, who had only just learned to speak, could not really answer, didn’t know how to handle the telephone and kept dropping it. She just sounded confused and Anna got cross. Anyway, it always turned out that Nina and Nana did all the chatting and Anna ended up in tears. Video calls were no better and, whenever they tried and failed, Anna covered her eyes and would not even look. Time passed slowly, too slowly, but eventually Anna was getting used to being on her own when she heard that Nana, settled again in Georgia, had had another baby, a boy this time, a brother for Taco. This news made Anna unhappy all over again. Then, last summer, Nina took Anna back to Georgia on holiday, Taco and Anna were reunited and—joy of joys—Anna helped look after the baby boy, whose name was Georgi. Anna was in paradise with Georgi as well as Taco. But earthly paradise never lasts and Anna had to come back to Greve and grieve twice over, as she had lost Taco again and now Georgi as well.
One day in church, Anna heard people praying and all at once decided what to do. She went to an icon of Jesus and stood in front of it, looking up with her hands clasped together. Then she knelt and prayed. Although she didn’t really know how she should do it, she prayed and prayed. It was a small prayer, short and definite. Dear Jesus, please bring us a baby. Please, please can I have a brother? She repeated the prayer many times and went on repeating it when she was at home. Surely, she thought, if Jesus can hear me in church, he can hear me at home as well.
A few weeks later, Nina felt something change. Her appetite altered, food was no longer what it used to be. Could it be possible?, she wondered. Surely not? But when the strange and familiar feelings increased, she went to the pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test kit. Yes, it said, almost certainly positive. Should she tell the family? Better perhaps to wait, so she spoke to her husband, but not to Anna. A week later, Nina tested again, no doubt, no doubt at all. You are pregnant, the test said. Anna was thrilled, overjoyed. But, of course, she wanted to know more.
“Is it a boy?” I asked Jesus for a brother. Too soon to tell. A routine delay before an ultrasound confirmed the pregnancy. But there were doubts. Something was odd, not as expected. The doctor said she wasn’t sure, that it was best to wait a while and have another scan. A month later, everything became clear. There was a huge surprise. Not just one baby; amazingly there were two babies, and Nina was expecting twins. Anna was doubly thrilled, but again she wanted to know more. She really had to know. The news of two babies was wonderful, but what did it mean? Anna kept asking questions. When Nina returned for another scan a month later, it revealed two baby boys.
Everyone was happy, but especially Anna. She had always felt that if she prayed to Jesus enough, she would be given a brother. But she had never thought of two. She started to work it out. When the boys were born, there would be three of them, her father and the two boys, but only two women, Nina and Anna. It felt unbalanced, not quite right. Perhaps if she prayed for a sister. She asked her dad if she could go to church and pray again. To which he replied, “No, don’t even dream of it!”
I agreed with Anna that she should say thank you to Jesus and asked her to draw an ex-voto to make sure. A few days later, her mother sent me the picture. It shows Nina carrying a baby boy in each arm, but Anna forgot to put in Jesus as you are meant to do for an ex-voto. So, I asked my friend Jo to draw a complete picture for her. Anna is taking both pictures to the church to show them to the priest in front of the icon of Jesus.
The expected date of birth was May 6, St. George’s Day, a very important event in the Georgian calendar. But the boys could not wait that long and were born on May 4. They are being looked after by Nina and Anna, and are doing well.
