MACERATA It was supposed to be a family vacation. A way for parents to spend time with their daughters, away from the frenzy of everyday life, among the beauties of Madeira, Portugal. But that long-awaited vacation turned into an unimaginable tragedy. A killer wave took from the life of Margherita Salvucci, 28 years old, a doctor specializing in Psychiatry who had lived in Padua for years where she had attended the University, (a degree with full marks in Medicine) but often returned to her Colmurano.
I shocked him
In that city – now in shock – everyone saw her grow up and her family is very well known: her mother, Ornella Formica, is a teacher and was the mayor of Colmurano; her father, Piergiovanni Salvucci, is an entrepreneur. The couple had left on Sunday together with their daughter Margherita and her younger sister Maria Ester. The four, on Thursday afternoon, had decided to go on an excursion to the natural pools of Seixal and that is where the tragedy occurred. “We were in a public pool on the northern coast of the island – says the girl’s mother -. My husband and I stayed on the beach and our daughters went into one of the natural pools where the water was very calm and where there were lots of people. I was on the upper terrace to take some photos of my daughters. At a certain point the waves got bigger: the youngest daughter went back, Margherita instead stopped, looked at me, a much bigger wave came and took her away. She tried to resist for several minutes, calling for help. Then an Italian tourist, a firefighter from Siena, Manuel Solms, when he realized that the ferry with the doctor would not arrive for twenty minutes, dived in with his life jacket. As soon as he reached her, Margherita fainted. He held my daughter with her head out of the water for the entire time waiting for help: the tourists on land tried to hold onto the rope but it was too dangerous and even the firefighter preferred to wait for help out at sea. After about twenty minutes, the vehicle with the doctor arrived, the girl was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Funchal where she died yesterday morning at 10.
The wait
Late Thursday evening, news of the accident had spread like wildfire in Colmurano and everyone prayed, hoping for a miracle. Then yesterday morning the tragic epilogue. An autopsy will be performed on the body and then, within a couple of weeks, the return to Italy can be organized. “It is a tragedy that affects us all – the words of the mayor of Colmurano, Mirko Mari -. We gather around the family in this moment of great pain, a pain that is difficult to fill. Margherita was always smiling, cheerful, kind, calm. Despite moving to Padua, she returned to town on several occasions, especially in the summer. She participated in events in Colmurano and was always ready to help the Borgo futuro association”. Pier-Giuseppe Vissani, a family friend, adds: “She was a good girl, enterprising, with great skills. She was very active in town, involved in initiatives and volunteering, she was full of life”. A testimony to her love for life and for her family is the letter that the young woman wrote a couple of years ago to thank her parents: “They always reminded me, during my studies, that there is nothing wrong with failing sometimes – the young woman wrote -. That I had every right to fail, to slow down, to make mistakes, to take it easy and enjoy the view. They taught me to remain human and to expect human things from myself, without lowering the bar of my dreams”. An infinite sweetness of hers, which today leaves an unfillable void in all those who knew her.
