“I’m very happy for the medals and the awards my grandson Simone received, he was a fantastic person, but now they have abandoned us. We do not have a home and my son who is disabled and who is Simone’s uncle, has been living in a hotel for the past two months and still doesn’t have a wheel chair. It is a shame, medals don’t help us”.

These are the words of Salvatore De Luca, 79 years old, Simone Neri’s grandfather, the hero of Giampilieri, who managed to save nine people during the flood of last October, amongst whom also his grandfather, who is now one of the displaced people living in a hotel in Messina. “For those from Giampilieri – said De Luca – they still haven’t done anything, unlike Abruzzo, where there was great solidarity. It is absurd that they are treating us like animals. I hope we will soon have a home, otherwise I won’t move from here”.

Simone Neri’s parents, Pippo Neri and Angelina De Luca, were discharged from the hospitals of Catania and Palermo. They are well now but they are still very upset and they also live in a hotel with their other children, the grandfather, the grandmother and Simone’s uncle. They do not want to talk, they are embittered: “We miss Simone a lot – they said – we are destroyed”. The mother was told of her son’s death only a couple of days after the funeral in order not to worsen her health conditions”.  

Translated by Chiara Nunnari from John Milton Institute