Casoria. Mena De Mare, mother of Santo Romano, the 19-year-old soccer player killed on the night of November 1st to 2nd in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio while acting as a helper in an argument over a dirty shoe, is a woman devastated by grief. The 17-year-old LDM from Barra, who confessed to the crime, killed him.
“A mother should never bury a child, because a child without a mother can go on, suffer, feel bad but can carry on with his life, but a mother without a child cannot”. Thus begins the long interview that Mena De Mare gave to the journalist Vincenzo Perone of Rai Campania
“My day today is made up of a visit to the cemetery, home and sofa. I miss everything about Santo, everything. It is not easy to raise two sons in the society we live in today and have them grow up with values and principles. Thinking about work, football and having goals. Because usually a man can get lost with his friendships. I have always been constant with them. They have always had friends like them, who work and play sports.
What hurts the most is that a 17 year old person stopped your life, your dreams, your goals. When I saw him dead, I told him 'I don't do anything without you'.
My friends brought a ball and I keep it in the chapel and when I go I play with him. It's absurd. When I go I play with it a little. I tell him save this shot. It's absurd, you have to hold on to something because otherwise he goes crazy. I put the videos that his girlfriend made on my WhatsApp status and I wrote "my number one" and he will always be number one".
Mena De Mare's reflection looks ahead and to a possible reduced sentence for the young man self-confessed murderer given that his lawyer is riding the wave of a two-year-old expert report that declares him only partially capable of understanding and willing and declared not accountable.
“This person made a mistake – explains Mena De Mare- and I hope they will make him pay in an excellent way. Are they minors? Should they be rehabilitated? But later. First they have to serve a sentence, they cannot be facilitated. Because it's not like my son will come back in six years. Because if he serves six years of sentence and my son will come back in six years then everything is fine. But since my son does not come home and it is not right that you have to be facilitated. Then you have to have a sentence of 20, 30 years and also the end of sentence never.
What he did was an act of an adult.
Because what you did is an act of an adult. The punishment to have an effect must be serious otherwise what kind of punishment is it. I say this as a mother and a teacher: kids need to be followed, they shouldn't be abandoned even at 20. But a boy who at 14 handles weapons and drugs, I as a mother would feel like a failure”.
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Comments (2)
Mena De Mare's story is truly touching, no mother should ever experience such pain. The hope is that justice will be done in the most serious way possible.
A very sad story, no mother should ever have to go through something like this. I hope that justice will take its course and that the person responsible will pay for what he did.