The lives of three women shattered. Three beautiful, smiling, joyful faces forever extinguished. The Friday before Christmas is a via crucis of painthree road victims in two different accidents. A damned pile-up in the province of Cosenza took away Marina Calabrese, 39 years old, and her 10 year old daughter Aurora Pellegrino. The husband and the other 3-year-old child, in the car towards Naples for a few days of holiday, were injured but fortunately not life-threatening.
In Messina, Milena Paratore, 40 years old, died on the ring road. in an independent accident between the Giostra and Boccetta junctions. And now two communities are crying for these three victims. The Pellegrino family lives in Santo Stefano Briga, where all the Christmas activities planned for today have been cancelled. “Yesterday afternoon, Friday 20 December, the Pellegrino family from S.Stefano Briga was involved in a tragic accident, which occurred on the motorway, in the Cosentino area. Unfortunately, the mother, Mrs. Marina Calabrese, and her daughter Aurora died , aged 10, attending the fifth grade of the S. Stefano Briga Primary School. The entire school community of the “Santa Margherita” Comprehensive Institute remembers the sweetest Aurora and shares with deepest condolences the pain of the family” we read on the website of the comprehensive school that the little girl attended.
Immense pain also in Falcone, where Milena Paratore lived. The 40-year-old worked with her father Rosario in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and the family was affected just over a month ago by the premature death of Milena’s mother.
Culletta, parish priest of S. Stefano Briga: “Devastating news. Tonight we will pray for Marina and Aurora”
The news of the accident in which Marina Calabrese, 39, and her daughter Aurora Pellegrino, 10, lost their lives has profoundly shaken the village of Santo Stefano Briga, which was preparing to experience Christmas in a joyful way. Speaking on behalf of everyone is the parish priest Don Matteo Culletta who also wanted to share this message through social channels: “The death of Marina and little Aurora was for the entire village of Santo Stefano Briga and for the parish community of San Giovanni, devastating news that has plunged all of us into despair, especially because it is just a few days before Christmas. We immediately decided to cancel the moments of celebration and conviviality planned for these days, not only because there would not have been the right spirit, but above all as a form of closeness to Antonio and Antonino, father and son. For them and to them now the care of all of us is addressed as well as the confident prayer in the Lord, so that he can give them the necessary strength to move forward. Tonight at 9pm we will meet in church for Eucharistic adoration, a moment of prayer for Marina and her little angel. Aurora was a very sweet little girl, she attended the parish, she spoke little but with her composure she expressed a tenderness typical of little ones. Marina, a devoted mother and wife, who took care of her children with love and a sense of responsibility. This is a great test, which we will experience as an opportunity to strengthen the sense of family and the community spirit that binds the two villages”. (by Rachele Gerace)