Nothing can separate me from the love of God

Chapter 1

This Day and age we’re living in

THE CIRCLE OPENED where the long grass grew and strutting kids went to play, careless of their mortality. It was called Interlagos and it was noisy as hell.

The circle closed a handful of kilometers away, where the grass is manicured so precisely all down a long, gentle incline. It is called Morumby and is as silent as eternity. There’s a metal plaque in the ground with name, dates and a proclamation in Portuguese, Nada pode me separar do amor de Deus, Nothing can separate me from the love of God. The plaque bears a number, 0011. All the plaques bear numbers. This is his.

Late 1998: fresh flowers have been left all around – 13 vases, reds and yellows and whites – and dried candle wax lies smeared in the grass from some departed vigil. A small tree stoops towards the plaque as if trying to offer shelter.

A man in uniform points the curious, as they come, towards the plaque. They come in currents and eddies, borne by a need for proximity, or longing, or who knows what? Michael Schumacher came: hired a taxi from the TransAmerica Hotel – where the Formula 1 fraternity stay for the grand prix – to take him discreetly, stood with tears pouring down his face. Japanese tourists come by the coach load, linger for up to five hours and are extremely reluctant to get back on the coach, go out under the low entrance buildings and close their own circle with a final farewell. Others come from who-knows-where, come mute, incredulous to be actually here, lost in the awkwardness of mourning. You can tell. They look nervous, not quite sure how to conduct themselves facing the finality.

The cemetery at Morumby is a haven within the city of São Paulo and São Paulo is a terrible immensity of an expanse from which you need a haven. It was into this expanse that Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on 21 March 1960 to Milton Guirardo Theodoro da Silva and Neyde Joana Senna da Silva. He had a two-year-old sister, Viviane. A brother, Leonardo, would be born in 1966.

SOURCE: As time goes by