From childhood, my mother, Ornella Carpano, spoke to me about a classmate of hers — someone with an exceptional strength that only life's hardest trials can forge.
I had seen Mariangela only a handful of times before the day I lived through one of the darkest moments of my life. Shattered by grief, terrified, alone by my own choice, I was beside my mother in her final hours — hours before she would be taken from home forever — when the doorbell rang and I heard that warm voice say: "It's Mariangela. Can I say hello to your mother?" I embraced her and said, "You came all this way to see her." The minutes slipped away as her quiet presence stood beside me, transmitting to me through her spirit a strength I had never known. I never saw her again after that day, but something profound remained in me, binding me to her forever.
Years later, thinking back, I understood that her sudden arrival in my darkest hour was no accident. The Lord had entrusted me to her care because, as my mother had always said, her life was an extraordinary witness to faith. Perhaps, had my mother been able to speak, she would have wanted Mariangela there with me when, for the first time, she could no longer be the one to comfort me.
Ida Cota, 2014