The clean dress

Tommaso has lost everything: his home, his job, and his family.

The decline began after the separation from his wife. He left home and rented one. The job barely allows him to cover all the expenses, but for a while, he managed to get by. Then the company for which he works decides to reduce the cost of personnel and Tommaso is blacklisted.

Desperation forces him to sell all his assets and he decides to buy an old trailer in which to survive.

Every evening, he washes and irons the only dress he has kept. In the morning, he proudly wears it, adjusts his tie, combs his hair, and feels ready to go and find a new job.

Life is putting a strain on him. He never would have thought he would be in this state. There are nights when he can’t sleep because he’s hungry. Others in which a lump rises in his throat thinking back to the happiest moments… a hot bath, the scent of a plate of pasta… then he chews a piece of bread soaked in milk and falls asleep.

Tommaso has lost everything… except his dignity.

His clean dress hangs there by the sink, ready to be put on for a new day, with the hope that it will be a luckier day.

There are events that you cannot predict and that in a moment make you collapse certainties. But there is something that no one will ever take away from you, something that is worth much more than a nice house, a nice car, or a nice dress… it’s a clean dress, your self-love. Wear it to the end and you will be the richest person in the world.