The Christmas atmosphere has transformed Italian cities into many small wedding favors full of lights and colours. The race for gifts to place under the tree has begun, amidst smiles and light-heartedness. There are families, however, who prefer to keep the light of hope always burning over the Christmas tree, which will then be extinguished, living daily in a limbo of questions that cannot be answered. Small traces, signals, elements that could appear insignificant to an outside eye, but which are instead of enormous value for a family that seeks answers in every possible way after so many years of silence.

Today we celebrate the "Day dedicated to missing persons", promoted by the Penelope association which has been dealing with missing persons and assistance to family members waiting to hear news for years. Many LED advertising systems, in the most important Italian squares, will be illuminated in green, the color of hope. A hope that remains lit in the hearts of families, like a beacon that never goes out in homes. The disappearance of a relative represents the total cancellation of everyday life. For relatives there is always a before and an after, with a pain that crystallizes in those few moments that characterized the disappearance of a loved one. Minutes or seconds that can be precious and that are endlessly re-read to look for possible nuances of abnormality in a gesture that will never find an explanation except with the return of the missing person.

«Today is the National Day to remember missing persons, and I emphasize people, because we are dealing with people, not with objects or keys or documents lost who knows where or forgotten somewhere: a report, a quick search in the places where we believe we have them lost and then a new one is bought, duplicates are made", said the lawyer Gianfranco Piscitelli, president of Penelope Sardegna, adding: "The missing people that we want to remember today are human beings, irreplaceable, non-duplicable, non-relegated to a complaint perhaps with the wording voluntary disappearance. This Day must serve to remind those who can and must that missing persons must always be sought because they are not objects and the disappearance of a human being cannot and must never be archived. As Penelope's motto says.'

Angelo Barraco

© Riproduzione riservata