“Dear mother, protect me”: this is the phrase written on the photo placed on the coffin of Elisa Girotto, the 40-year-old mother who died of cancer in Spresiano in the province of Treviso. An image that portrays her with her daughter, born just 13 months ago right at the onset of the disease; that little girl to whom she wanted to leave gifts as a memento before succumbing to the disease until her 18th birthday.

Today, in the church of Lovadina, an entire community wanted to say their last farewell to Elisa. The light wooden coffin with yellow roses on top was placed in the center of the nave.

The funeral was celebrated by the parish priest Giovanni Stasi, the priest who married Elisa and Alessio on August 12th. In these last months, however, Elisa has found the strength, the determination, to think about gifts for the little girl, but also to record her voice so that the little girl, when she is older, can hear it and understand the love she had for her and that made her say "I am a mother, I am not a sick person", as was remembered during the mass.