On the pitch of Via Dezza, in Milan, a flower has become the symbol of a painful and profoundly human story that reminds us that, despite the darkness of some, there is still hope in a better world. For eight years, a mother has placed a sunflower near the entrance to remember her fifteen-year-old son, who passed away in 2017 after a sudden illness right there while playing basketball, his greatest passion.
That simple flower has always been the mother’s way of keeping alive a bond that time can never erase. In recent months, however, someone has begun to tear up and throw away the sunflower. A gesture that for that woman meant a new pain, repeated every time.
The mother’s note and the response that hurts
To try to make people understand the value of that little ritual, the mother left a note next to the flower:
Don’t tear me away. I never got up after falling on this field. This sunflower reminds me of. Thank you, Alexander.
The response, anonymous and cruel, appeared shortly after:
If everyone put a flower for every dead person, Milan would be a dustbin.
Words that struck not only the mother, but anyone who read the story which quickly went viral on social media thanks to posts from pages like The day type and associations that mobilized for Alessandro and his mother. A wound in collective sensitivity, an example of that lack of empathy that too often becomes the protagonist in public places. And so a real mobilization was born.
View this post on Instagram
The city reacts: dozens of sunflowers invade the pitch
In fact, that very negative gesture gave birth to something unexpectedly beautiful. The incident prompted many people to go to the pitch with a sunflower in their hand. In a few hours the entrance was filled with flowers, messages, little thoughts addressed to both Alessandro and his mother. But there are also those who invited the anonymous person who threw away the sunflower to think again and identify with the story of this mother who saw her child taken away too soon.
Local florists offered bouquets for free, children and teenagers brought their sunflowers, several street artists offered to paint a large flower on the field. Some friends are organizing a tournament in memory of the boy, while there has been talk of naming the area after Alessandro, a symbol of a love that stands the test of time.
That place, wounded by a petty act, has become a small monument of humanity. And that sunflower, torn too many times, now blooms in dozens of specimens, brought by a city that has chosen to be on the side of good and to embrace a mother and her child.
View this post on Instagram
You might also be interested in:
