Monserrato, tears and prayers for Valeria Sollai: "You can't die like this."

Her hands on her chest, her gaze fixed on the sky: "You can't die like this. No, it's not possible," the young woman in the square keeps repeating, unable to find peace. And it's a constant stream of tears, silent prayers, and questions condemned to remain unanswered, not even on the day of Valeria Sollai's farewell. With Monserrato in mourning , flags at half-mast and shops closed as a sign of respect and sympathy for the family of the sixty-two-year-old who battled botulism poisoning for nearly a month in a hospital bed.

Her last heartbeat was on the 19th, and on Monday the autopsy of her body will be returned to her husband Angelo, her son Alessandro, and all the relatives, friends, and acquaintances gathered to accompany her on her final journey; one without return or hope, inside the light walnut coffin placed at the foot of the altar of a church too small to contain all those present and the dull pain that seems to be heard crying out, among the crowded pews of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, and read in the shining eyes of those who still struggle to believe that Valeria is no longer with us.

So at the end of the mass we cry even more, we gather around Angelo and Antonello who have lost a wife and a mother , taken away in a way that perhaps makes the pain even stronger.