As anticipated, in Canada I was lucky enough to experience two breath-stopping events and defining moments of my life. If the first one happened to be with the inspiring open-minded day on board with Greenpeace, as the “Rainbow Warrior” made its special stop in Vancouver – BC after 42 years they took their roots there; the second eye-opening experience begun with an odd question coming from Gary, after we shared some talk about my complicated story in the music business and a delicious dinner with his wife and kids down in Chinatown. “How do you tell a story like yours back in Italy ?” – “and mostly important, how do you feel?”. Gary was always that type of guy, somebody who go out and get it done. If there is nothing waiting for him he will search for it, without focusing on anything specific, he creates his occasion, and I find this attitude highly creative.
Get out in the real world and face your day.
The feeling I had when I was with his family was a reckless well-being. Never knew where we were heading to or what we were up to, but it felt just right and good! He didn’t really give me the time to answer that question by the way, next thing I know is He leapt from the chair and took all of us in some place I’ve never been before. Vancouver at night is stunningly beautiful by the way! The city lights are so bright, yet you can still see the stars. “let’s take her there Mary” he said to his wife. Well, just let me explain you that where I’m from, the word “There” is a “nowhere to be found” place, a mysterious spot that is supposed to be in the house (somewhere/somehow) but that nobody has ever seen, maybe it exists in its own pocket dimension anchored to our reality here?! I don’t know, but “There” is where I used to be sent by my mom evertime I asked “did you see my jacket?” and she would answer – “Yes, it’s there!” “hey did you see my keys?” – and here she goes – “Darling check out over “there”. We drove on the “Port Mann Bridge” located in Surrey, a bridge which that year, with its width of 65 metres (213 ft) became the world’s widest long-span bridge, conquering the Guinness World Records, overtaking the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, which, at 49 metres (161 ft). The bridge was standing so tall above our heads, with a length of 850 metres (2,790 ft) its two towers and 288 cables looking for far like big ship’s sails, to drive underneath those cables felt like getting swallowed by a train of triangles, in a sequence, one after another. To cross that bridge was like to enter a moder masterpiece of architectonic geometry. However, as majestic as it was we got through it, and it wasn’t my final destination. We ended up in a lonely park with a stand of trees around us. We parked the car right there, and then Mary told me “Please, follow him Veronica, do not worry.” The trees were oozing sugary nectar around the brim of each leaf, so I figured, these sugar-flavoured leaves were coming from Maples Trees.
“whatever it takes, ‘cause i love how it feels when i break the chains”
In the meantime Gary was entering the dense forest, pushing into the vegetation, roaming through the dusky wild. I was confused and afraid, and at the same time I was thinking on how the further you go out into the unknown you actually cross the plane between mortal and immortal world. Finally he stops, it was all dark with an unexpectedly loud rushing water sound boosting around me. It was overwhelming, coming from my right and left side. I couldn’t see well but I could hear well and mostly important feel it. Gary starts to run again buzing and cheering out loud. I can hear then, strong and clear, the sound of wooden boards under my steps, and so, to keep his pace I start running too chasing him. Next thing I know, is I got, like, an emptiness in my stomach all at once. Things starts to swing and wobble, the wooden boards seems so soft under my feet, my hands grab indistinctly ropes and then chains, and then, finally, everything disappear under the powerful sound of the river flowing beneath the bridge. Yes, I didn’t see this coming. Without even knowing it I was walking on the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which stretches 450 feet across and 230 feet above the Capilano River. My head was spinning, and I was dizzy. It was blindly dark out there therefore to cross it seemed like forever. Still today I have no absolutely idea how we got in there so easily.
IN THE BEGINNING OF MY JOURNEY I WAS LOSTAND THEN I WAS FINALLY FOUND. I FOUND MYSELF.You can decide to live your life like a coward or like a warrior.
Destiny is a Gift.
The current was so strong and unbridled that the wind produced out it blew everywhere, I felt like I was being pulled apart, scattered in hundred pieces, and that’s when Gary asked me the same question again shouting from far “How do you tell a story like your own? How do you tell your story to your country, Italy?” but mostly important “How do you feel when you tell it?” – he went on to say – “ I’m asking you because you and your story are just like this river, you are unbridled. Therefore when those kings upon their thrones are going to ask you how’s to live a life to the fullest like yours, so brave like yours, you must answer: it’s like the Capilano Suspension Bridge in Canada” and then he said- “and then when you tell about it, keep feeling lost, dizzy, with your heart up in your throat skipping a beat, and then found again. Because it’s a true story, and that’s how true stories make you feel like.” I realized how Gary was teaching me to deal with the audience and to discern between arrogance and attitude, charm and humility, he was telling me how to keep my balance during days of darkness and confusion, where I had to dive and drift with the current and days where one must be cautious about drifts. We came back in the car, and it was the best time I had in Canada. That night Gary also told me that his wife was expecting their 3rd child. You know, even if my name was Veronica, and the meaning of my name comes from the Greek “Berenice” which carries the words “to bring” and níkê, “victory”, i.e. “she who brings victory” i had the pleasure to know 9 months later, that our friendship inspired Gary and Mary to name their child “Victoria” which reminds the meaning of my name and from the Greek tells about “She who wins over the evil”, not knowing that even the meaning of her name was intimately connected and intertwined to my destiny.
English 
Italian