Naples – "I want to tell the taxi driver who drove me that my partner is safe and sound, and as of Friday, I'm a father to a baby girl." This is the testimony of a customer who has launched an appeal to find the kind-hearted Neapolitan taxi driver who consoled him and drove him to the hospital on the evening of January 30th.
It's a story with a happy ending that happened in Naples and which, thanks to the help of the Comitato Tassisti di Base, allowed the customer and the taxi driver to be reunited.
This story of great solidarity was told by a customer who recently posted on social media, appealing for help in finding a taxi driver who had driven him from the central station to the obstetric emergency room at the Policlinico Vanvitelli hospital on January 30th.
“I ask a great favor: I'm looking for a taxi driver, a brown-haired/blonde man of about 27/30 years old who on Friday evening, January 30th, around 19:40 PM, drove me from Naples Central Station to the obstetric emergency room at the Vanvitelli Polyclinic,” the man wrote in the message sent to the taxi drivers, who were incredulous at discovering what had happened during a taxi ride that seemed merely routine.
This time, the reason for the search wasn't a complaint, nor a rebuke to the much-maligned taxi drivers, but to express deep gratitude to the young man who, throughout the journey, reassured the customer by 'telling him nice things to distract him'.
The man said the taxi driver distracted him from his anxiety and worries about the condition of his partner and the unborn baby. With typical Neapolitan kindness, he brought him moments of relief, while the man cried incessantly.
“He saw and heard me crying the whole way because I had to rush to the hospital to find out what had happened to my pregnant partner, who had emergency surgery. He tried to reassure me and said lots of nice things to me just to keep from seeing me sob,” says the client.
And at the end of the ride, the taxi driver did something only a noble heart could do: he didn't take the fare. He didn't exploit the customer's pain. "He had such a big heart that when we arrived outside the hospital, he didn't ask for the money. Overcome with emotion, I hugged him tightly, thanked him, and cried," the man said in the message posted on social media.
Even so, it would have been a beautiful story of solidarity, to which the Neapolitan people are partly accustomed. But after the worries and anguish for the fate of his loved ones, the customer thought over and over again about that gesture, which couldn't be left hanging and confined to a single day. And he called the taxi driver to tell him that the worst was over, and the tears of fear that evening turned into tears of joy.
"My partner is safe, and on Friday I became the father of a baby girl who is currently in intensive care." And finally, a heartfelt plea: "Help me find this wonderful boy; please."
The young taxi driver's colleagues took action, spread the word, and the taxi driver with a heart of gold now has a name and a face. His name is Carmine Pascariello, taxi number CP 4131, and he probably didn't even realize—until his colleagues relayed the message—that he had had one of the best rides of his life.
He was the protagonist of a story with a happy ending and an act of generosity and human solidarity that is priceless.
A story that also touched his colleagues, so much so that the Naples Taxi Drivers Committee, after putting the customer in touch with Carmine Pascariello, wanted to express their appreciation and gratitude for the young member's behavior.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
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