The mother of little Elio, killed by monoxide: “I'm just trying to survive, my son was ill the night before…”

«I don't know anything, now I don't know anything. I just know that I'm trying to survive, actually not. I only want one thing: to die.”says Claudia, the mother of Elio, the 11-year-old boy who lost his life together with her ex-husband Matteo Racheli in the villa of San Felice a Ema (Florence), where Margarida Alcione, a 46-year-old of South American origin, was found dead.

The carbon monoxide spared Margarita and Matteo's daughter: a 6-year-old girl who is now in very serious conditions in hospital.

Elio's mother, Claudia — in a conversation with Il Corriere Fiorentino — reconstructs some moments. «I had spoken to my son the night before, he told me he had a headache, a bad headache. It was Wednesday evening”. Who would have thought that it was due to the first exhalations of carbon monoxide? Nobody. This is why «the next day (last Thursday, ndr), I was alarmed because he didn't answer my cell phone: it rang in circles». Despair is in the voice of a mother who had called the school to make sure he was there and then her ex-husband to understand what had happened. “No one answered me, and I raised the alarm,” he says.

Claudia's sentences are few because there is nothing to say. “Because you can't live like this, I don't want to live like this,” he says again. And in the pain he feels a small seed emerges: “I'm thinking of adopting the little survivor.” Thoughts and words that break down. And which are held only in the pain of those who repeat: “It's not possible, all this is not possible.”

Then all the possible pain of those who survive a child. And to those who – in these moments – do nothing but think of him while playing, studying or going to football. «I need silence» says the woman who – at the time of the phone call – was in Careggi hospital. Probably for the identification of the body: one of the most merciful operations that the law imposes, at all costs, on a family member.

But Elio's death also affected political institutions and the world of youth football. «The tragedy that occurred on the outskirts of Florence where three people died due to carbon monoxide inside their home strikes us closely». The municipal administration of Poggio a Caiano (Prato) writes this on its social channels, recalling how little Elio Racheli, who lost his life together with his father Matteo and the latter's new partner Margarida Alcione, had attended until very recently some time ago, the schools in Poggio a Caiano, despite not being a resident of the town.

Furthermore, “until last year, he was a member of the Csd Poggio a Caiano 1909 football club”. THEMayor Riccardo Palandri and the entire municipal administration «participate with deep emotion to the pain of the family members for this tragedy that leaves us speechless”, we read again in the post.

Condolences for the passing of the 11-year-old and his family also come from the football club itself: «Little Elio – the post appeared on social media – was a member of our club until last year, in the 2013 team. The Csd Poggio a Caiano 1909 club shares with deep emotion the pain of the family for this tragedy which leaves us speechless . Tomorrow (today, ndr) a minute's silence will be observed on the pitch in memory of Elio.”

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December 21, 2024 (changed December 21, 2024 | 07:48)

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