It is an appointment with the memory that is renewed every year in Olgiate Olona on 26 June, a date engraved in the history of the town which on that day in 1959 was the scene of a terrible air disaster: 70 victims, including 16 Italians and 8 nations of origin (it reminds her of a memorial in the place of the disaster).
A tragedy that united in pain three continents, Europe, Africa and America, North and South, from which the passengers of the TWA flight that had just taken off from Malpensa headed to Chicago via Paris came from. At 5.33pm disaster struck: the plane was struck by lightning and crashed in Valle Olona, no one survived. For years, thanks to the commitment of the municipal administration of Olgiate Olona, on the anniversary day the memory of the tragic event and the bond of brotherhood born in the pain of the relatives of the victims who return to the town for the ceremony have been renewed. That terrible 26 June 1959 has been reconstructed and recounted in a commendable way in the volume edited by the Olgiate historian Alberto Colombo.
But the memory is also passed down thanks to the works dedicated to the tragic event of the middle school children who were also awarded yesterday by the mayor Giovanni Montano, at the end of the institutional ceremony, preceded by the mass in the ancient provost’s collegiate church of Santi Stefano e Lorenzo.
Olgiate Olona and its community do not forget: “It was an event that deeply touched the people of Olgiate – says mayor Montano – my fellow citizens rushed for first aid, it was a tragedy that united many nations, and it is important for us maintain this bond of brotherhood with the relatives of the victims who participate in the commemoration”.
Even yesterday that bond was renewed as the names of the 70 victims were announced, whose stories are collected on the website that remembers them. Among them Maria Fermi Sacchetti, the sister of the great scientist Enrico Fermi, her tomb is in the Olgiate Olona cemetery.
Teacher of Literature at the Orazio Flacco High School in Rome, she was headed to Chicago, waiting for her sister-in-law, Enrico Fermi’s widow, who was supposed to hold some conferences on Italian literature. Her journey ended tragically on June 26, 1959. She had expressed her wish to her three children to be buried where her life ended. She rests forever in the Olgiate Olona cemetery.
