A long hug that united the entire city, without boundaries of origin or belief. In the Cathedral of Christ the King, La Spezia bid farewell to Abanoud Youssefthe student of the Einaudi Chiodo professional institute who died on Friday after being stabbed by a classmate while he was at school. A composed ceremony, with a very large representation of young people who wanted to say a final farewell to their friend who passed away too soon.
Hundreds showed up at the service, celebrated with a Coptic Christian rite, with a white rose and an image of Aba – as everyone called him – retouched with wings, as if to represent in a more acceptable way an incomprehensible and unprecedented tragedy. A faith that the young man felt deeply, so much so that he became a deacon.
Everyone wanted to be there on the day of mourning in the city: institutions, police forces, the world of schools, many citizens and especially the boy’s peers. They were the majority of them in the cathedral, in tears, ready to support themselves and find meaning in the death of a friend killed for a photo capable of triggering an unhealthy and illogical jealousy. A silence broken only by the heartbreak of the young man’s family and by help for some friends who fell ill. Aba, an 18-year-old of Egyptian origins, united the city: two hours after the minute of silence observed in his memory in schools, his white coffin on which flowers of the same color were placed he left the morgue of the Sant’Andrea hospital – studded with posters written by the young man’s friends – accompanied by a long procession, while the shutters of the shops were lowered as a sign of condolence.
During the Coptic rite celebration, officiated in Italian and Arabic, the bishop of the diocese of La Spezia, Sarzana and Brugnato spoke Monsignor Luigi Ernesto Pallettiwho recalled his meeting with the boy in this moment of profound pain and, on the day of silence, underlined that “the word of God leads us further: not to the end, but to eternal life”. Aba’s cousin also spoke, Kiru Attia. «In this painful moment – he said – I thank those who have made us feel their closeness», citing institutions and law enforcement agencies, for which he had particular regard, the state and the government.
However, he had no words for the school, which was accused by some of the students and the family in recent days, but the Einaudi-Chiodo institute, a multi-ethnic reality that gives and has given a future to many young people who have come from far away, wanted to accompany its student on this last journey not only with the students, but also with the director Gessica Caniparoli, the deputy, the teachers, and the former principal Emilio Di Felice. At the end of the ceremony it was time to say goodbye: hugs, tears, but also consolation. There were those who exploded fireworks, those who applauded, those who released white and blue balloons. They attached two to the cathedral railings. It was written «Aba lives. Always.”
