Valeria Izzo, 28 years old, she is a mother of arcade of two one-year-old twins. In April she lost her husband. And now she is launching a fundraiser to help raise her daughters.
The husband Mariano young like her and full of dreams with whom she ran a wine bar in San Giorgio a Cremano after obtaining funding to open. On the evening of April 29, he was riding his motorbike after a day of work, returning home when he was hit by a car, left lifeless on the asphalt. Today Valeria has to pay for the premises, repay the loan and, above all, raise two daughters that her husband loved very much. For this reason, she decided to start a fundraiser through the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe: it is possible to donate and so far it has reached 4 thousand euros.
PORTICI, THE MOVING LETTER OF VALERIA IZZO
Hi, I'm Valeria, I'm 28 years old, and I'm the mother of 1-year-old twins.
It is for them that I created this fundraiser.
I grew up without a father, because when I was 17 he passed away due to a bad disease. I thought that the void I felt would never be filled, until eight years ago when I met Mariano.
In him I saw what I had lost, I felt that I could always count on him, despite the many difficulties I was sure that we would overcome them and that sooner or later we would have the family we so desired.
Mariano always worked and always tried to make sure I didn't lack anything. Often we stayed home because there was no money to go out but it didn't matter because we were together and so we had everything. Many times, when there was no work or when there was some difficulty, Mariano told me that everything was so unfair to him and I always told him that we would make it, that he deserved so much and that he had to smile even if everything went wrong.
Three years ago we decided to move in together, I carry in my heart all of those beautiful moments, choosing the color of the walls, painting the house together, choosing the dishes or furniture. In 2019, we discovered we were expecting twins, we were scared but very happy, the dream of a lifetime, that of having a family was about to come true.
For me the most beautiful thing was seeing Mariano play with his daughters just like my father did with me and that's all I wanted for our girls, for them to always have their father close by, something I couldn't have.
In the meantime, since our work was precarious, we decided to ask for financing to open a place. Unexpectedly, everything came together: the news of the pregnancy and the confirmation that our request for financing had been accepted. We were in disbelief, finally our life path was close to a turning point. Unfortunately, however, COVID arrived, I was a few months away from giving birth, we had found the place for our business, we had to start the work, but Mariano was fired.
So we find ourselves with a lot of expenses and no income. The work on the premises, therefore, slows down, and since a lot of money would still be needed, Mariano locks himself in the premises and decides to finish the work himself: he builds the doors, the counter and everything that was necessary for the opening of the premises and the start of the business. So we finally open the bar, the inauguration was scheduled for April 30, 2021 (a week after the opening).
What I thought was the beginning of a new chapter in our life turned out to be the end. April 29, 2021 is a day I will never forget. In the morning I go to Mariano, bring him a sweatshirt and say goodbye, he was tired and a little disheartened because not many people were coming in, I tell him once again not to get down, that we would make it, it was just a matter of waiting. I say goodbye to him, unaware of the fact that it would be the last time I would see him, and I go home to the girls.
As we said our last goodbye, looking into each other's eyes he said to me: "I love you darling, don't worry"... I will never forget this moment.
Evening comes, I call him to find out what time he will be back home and he replies that he is closing the place (it was around 21pm).
I fall asleep, when suddenly one of the twins wakes up and calls dad, and I tell her: "you're right mommy, we haven't heard from dad yet, I'll call him now". It was 22:00 pm, the phone was unreachable; a sudden emptiness in my stomach, I felt that something had happened.
I called his family and friends to find out, but no one had heard. I called my brother-in-law and said: “let's go look for him”. We all got in the car, including family and friends, looking for Mariano. So I thought of taking the same road he took to go home… I never ever imagined I would find him like this… on the road there was the police, an ambulance and a black sheet… I didn't understand anything anymore, I just kept telling myself that it wasn't him, that it couldn't be him. Mariano was gone, he was lying lifeless on the asphalt.
No one stopped to help him, he who had always helped everyone was not helped by anyone, he was run over and whoever did it ran away. Multiple cars passed over the body, knocking him out over and over again. Not even a last goodbye was granted to us.
Now I am left alone with two very small girls to raise, who will never know their father, they were just 9 months old when he left us.
I thought about closing the place but I have a lot of debts between jobs, financing to repay, machinery to pay for, so I tried to reopen but it's not easy alone, it was Mariano who knew how to do everything.
I would like to recover only the money that I have to pay back for the financing and the works, for the future of my daughters, to give them hope, because I know what it means to grow up without a father and the same sad fate happened to them too.
I miss every single moment with Mariano, I miss his smile, I miss our dinners, I miss going shopping with him and choosing what we liked, I miss organizing the day with him or simply watching a movie, I miss him more and more every day and when I look at our girls I see him, I see us, I see what was taken away from us.
I ask for help for me, my girls and for Mariano who has always fought in life, he never gave up on anything, only on death that took him away at only 32 years old. We have never asked for help, but today I have to do it for our daughters.
I can only hope for people's help and I thank in advance those who will support us in this initiative.
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