(by Manuela Correra) “It is impossible to turn off the sun”. The words of a friend to describe Federico, 23 years old, taken from his life on March 7, 2022 while riding his motorbike to University.
A “normal” but at the same time “special” boy, with a thousand interests and a passion for the weakest, starting with children or anyone who needed help, even a small one. And with a passion: poems. Verses and writings that now the mother and father, Francesca and Massimo, have decided to publish in a book, ‘The sun never sets’, the proceeds of which will be entirely donated to the pediatric oncohematology department of the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome .
Francesca Lo Mastro is a family doctor and describes her son ‘Fede’ as a volcano of energy and positivity: “He studied mechanical engineering and was close to joining the Guardia di Finanza as a non-commissioned officer, his dream, but he also wanted to get busy and on Saturdays he delivered pizzas, a normal but also special boy, because he was always able to dignify his life experiences: at school, since he was a child, and then growing up full of friends or friends of his friends who needed help, an opinion. And then his thousand phone calls asking me to do something, as a doctor, because there was always some situation to intervene in – he states – with the his empathy, it was the ‘other’ that he had in front of him every day”.
Then a testimony, in a certain sense the ‘testament’ that Fede left and which pushed Francesca and Massimo to move forward with the project of a book intended to help sick children: “A week before the accident, friends said , in a game everyone had to say what they would have wished if something bad had happened to them, and Fede replied that his parents’ love towards him, so great, if he were no longer there, he wished it would be given to other young people and children who needed it, that it was not lost”, says Francesca. When he accidentally found, in a folder on his home PC, many of Federico’s poems and letters that he didn’t know existed, the idea of doing something concrete was immediate: “Massimo and I wanted to achieve what Fede he believed, standing alongside others, of those in need, simply but concretely. This book, which collects Fede’s poems and writings but also the testimonies of those who knew him, represents a ‘sliding door’. opens up to hope and conveys Faith’s joy of living to those who perhaps need it most, small patients in a hospital ward”. The proceeds will therefore go to the pediatric oncohematology department of the Bambino Gesù: “We chose it because it is the welcoming hospital and the entire proceeds from the sale of Fede’s book will be allocated to the care, research and activity of the department of Oncohaematology and support for the families of young patients”. Francesca and Massimo directly took care of the printing of the book (edited by Francesca and Barbara Valenti, ‘aunt Bibi’ for Federico), which can be requested from them and which will be presented on 21 June in Rome.
“We want to channel this immense pain into a hope, that of being useful to others, as Fede has indicated to us”, says Francesca. An experience that will continue: “The next step is to establish an association in the name of Federico and, as a doctor, my project – he concludes – is also to go to Africa to engage directly in the places where children are most at risk and the Their existence is threatened every day.”
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
