Women's Portraits

Santina Porcu

Her motto: "You must always leave a space for others"

Santina was born 73 years ago in Macomer, where she still lives with her husband. Retired for only three years, she has got everything she needs to live. She does not know what loneliness is: absorbed in a world of multiple relationships, Santina has been engaged for a long time in various social activities for her very rewarding.

Her childhood, youth, job

She spends a happy childhood with her parents and two brothers. Her family is generous, open and hospitable and during the Second World War they put some soldiers up, as they were far from their home while serving in Macomer. At the age of 15 she moves to Cagliari, the Sardinian capital city, to attend higher studies.

Qualified as a social worker, she starts working in different cities in Sardinia. We are at the beginning of the difficult sixties. Her task is to manage social centers in the suburbs in order to foster the integration of different origin and social classes children, who live in council houses built after the war. 

Her dismissal and numerous new activities

After eleven years of successful and rewarding work, Santina is forced to a painful dismissal due to the suppression of the body which she depends on. She gets married and after a spell with her husband in Apulia, she comes back to Macomer, where she would like to resume her old job (for her a true vocation), but in that field there is no possibility of employment. Santina settles with her husband at her parents’ house. She feels dissatisfied and has a very difficult time. The need to work firces her to accept her merchant brother’s proposal to open a store, which she runs for 18 years. But, at the same time, she looks for contacts and finds space even in the social field. So that she takes part in politics as a town councillor for the social services, works close and actively with many associations dealing with the sick and teaches in training centers for geriatric care. After 18 years of business, as soon as she senses the chance to return to "her" work, Santina leaves the store and accepts to play the role of social worker in a town near Macomer.

A dream comes true

Finally, when the Cooperative, which starts at the rest home for elderly people, is formed Santina offers as a social worker to that structure immediately. She enjoys the full confidence of all older people and for them she is not only the assistant, but also a main point of reference for any need, activity and initiative. Santina retires at the age of 70, three years ago.  

Hard times

There are mainly two difficult periods, the first is that following the dismissal due to the dissolution of the body from which she depends (the ISCAL). This is a crucial moment that Santina manages to face without major traumas, both because she considers her dismissal as a transitional phase, and because it is pleasant enough for her to devote herself totally to her husband and home, as she has recently married. The real crisis comes when back to Macomer (her hometown), after three years, there still does not appear to be any chance of resuming her job as a social worker and especially when she becomes aware of the impossibility of finding employment in the field that is so congenial to her. Living in her  family's house  sharpens her uneasiness, as it makes her miss the rewarding role of mistress happily experienced in the previous three years spent in Apulia. But Santina’s strength points are her optimism, willingness to change and new experiences and, above all, her spirit of enterprise. Her gifts and confidence in the future are what helps her to overcome and deal with the difficulties and the critical moments.

Her present

Her days are really full. She usually spends the first hours of the morning at home, then goes out for shopping and visiting  some ill.

In the afternoon she is a voluntary assistant in a listening center that welcomes people in difficulty. Santina also takes part in meetings with the Franciscans, who devote themselves to good works for people in need. Even in the afternoon there is some patient who is waiting for her.
For over 37 years Santina has been continuing to cooperate actively with the OFTAL, an association that takes care of taking the sicks to Lourdes. These are the most rewarding trips for her. Accompaning the sicks means, especially in cases of serious illness, to nurse and assist them in all their needs (washing, dressing, feeding, pushing the wheelchair) and support them by talking and by listening to any time of the day.

It is through all these activities that Santina is enhanced.

Anna Rossini, Gina Botta