Giovanna Spantigati

A few days ago I saw a really sad scene. I went to pick Emanuele from school but I arrived in advance. I parked in front of the school and I stayed in the car reading a book.
Suddenly I heard a loud noise and I got off the car to see what was happening.

A 15 year old boy was forcefully knocking at the front door of the school while another boy was holding a young girl sitting on the steps in state of unconsciousness. As nobody was coming to open the door, I told the boy to keep on knocking, because I realized that the girl (Stella, an imaginary name) was very sick.
A teacher came and asked if she was from that school. The two boys said yes, that it was her first high school year, that she hadn't gone back to school in the afternoon because while outside for lunch time she got drunk and got sick.

They had found her in this conditions in the gardens next to the school. One boy told me that he had nothing to do with what happened, the problem was she had been his girlfriend, but he had left her three days earlier and therefore she decided to get drunk up to feel bad on purpose. The teacher, annoyed, worried, said: "We need to call her mother!" But I insisted on calling an ambulance. No one bothered to remove the girl from the stairs. I asked to take her in right away and the boys laid her on a class desk. The teachers were nervous, her mates were curious and astonished, the school caretakers were screaming.

Stella was 14, just like my daughter Martina. She was in a cold sweat, her body frozen as if she had collapsed, she did not open her eyes but was complaining. I held her cold hands, she began to cry and said she wanted to die, then she started screaming from the pain in her stomach. I caressed her hair telling her not to worry, that soon she would be fine and that doctors were coming. No one called her parents, they were all out of mind. At last a friend of Stella arrived screaming, throwing her backpack on the ground. We calmed her down immediately. I took her by her shoulders firmly but gently and I asked: "What happened? What did she take to be like that? You must tell me so we can help her, no use to hide what doctors will find out soon." She was terrified, she said that they had bought a bottle of rum, but she didn't realize her friend would drink so much. Then she turned to Stella asking her "What have you done?" No answer. Stella could not understand, she was sweating, moving her head, crying and calling her friend, raving .

I took the girl aside and I whispered: "Do not scold her now, just reassure her. You don't understand what she is risking." I could not tell her Stella might end up in ethylic coma, she was so scared, and I wondered if Stella had also taken drugs.... Then the bell rang, Emanuele came out of his class and I had to go. "Keep on reassuring her," I told the teachers. The ambulance was coming and I got out of there crying.

The suffering of human beings is my suffering. When I was a kid I volunteered with a very old woman in a nursing home. I was the only person who visited her. Every time I entered her room she used to clasp her hands and smile happily. As if she were my great grandmother I told her about my family, my studies, and she always listened to me even though sometimes I had to repeat things several times ... I told her about my goldfish and every time I visited her the first thing she asked was: "What about the little fish?" with her tremulous voice, so anxious ... She could go from laugh to cry in next to no time. When she laughed her whole body was shaking, and it was so beautiful to see her like that. But when she cried I felt so bad, she was so helpless... I've never had the courage to tell her that my goldfish had died.

Never throw life away, never throw yourself away. Life is a miracle, it is marvelous. The first thing I taught my children was to watch the sky, the colors of nature, the wonder of the sun. Look at that beautiful sunset, Manu, look at the rainbow, Marti. I do not know who that girl was. Maybe I will not even see her again and acknowledge her because when she was lying on the desk had a distorted face, but if I ever happened to see her, I would go towards her and hug her.


Giovanna Spantigati