I am always of two minds in regard to the United States. I both miss it terribly and am happy to be away from there, particularly when I see how things have gone there in the last six years or so (and I write this in 2022, to be clear).

Since I came to Italy to stay, eighteen years ago, I have lost a lot of my family in the US. My father and stepfather both passed away in 2009. My mother passed in 2017, my sister and grandmother in 2020, and my aunt in 2022. I have not been home since my mother’s...