“This is the gift I owed my father. Telling the millions of Italians who made them rejoice, who the man was who was hiding behind those bulging eyes.” Thus begins the intervention of the daughter of Totò Schillaci on Republic.
“He was a simple man – continues Jessica Schillaci – and simplicity is a virtue, the same virtue that my father left me as a legacy. For goodness sake, he didn’t have the ambition to stay away from fame but he didn’t even grow italternating moments of popularity with moments in which he completely disappeared from the radar of the mass media. And it is especially in those moments that my father he was a great father“.
“Three days ago, at his bedsidemy brother Mattia and I – he continues – told him that there were already TVs in front of the hospital. He replied: ‘I only care about you.’ And he apologized to us because he thought he hadn’t been present as often as he would have liked, that we would have wanted. I am a nurse in Verona and I returned to be with him in these days of profound pain. I know the end-of-life process but embarking on this journey with your father, with a young father, is truly heartbreaking. We talked, we even joked as long as it was possible. We remembered the best moments of our livesthe ones that can never be forgotten, that no death can ever take away from me. When dad turned his corner, when he was bought by Juventus, I was two years old and my brother Mattia had just been born. As a child, dad supported Juventus and told us about the emotion he felt when he met Boniperti, about shaking hands with the president. ‘For me it was a dream to wear the black and white shirt’, he told us.”
“I lived the life of a little girl, daughter of a famous person, I didn’t understand much but I liked the love of the people who met dad on the street, some even exaggerated by bowing when they saw him. All that enthusiasm made me happy. He was a hero in his own way but for me he was just a father. Our relationship hasn’t always been easy, but what relationship between parents and children is easy? Of course, it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to him.”
Then the memory of the last summer together: “I took vacation in July to be with dad. We went to the seaside in Isola delle Femmine, he wanted to take me on a boat but he was already having a lot of trouble. We settled for a swim in the sea and a super fish-based lunch. It was beautiful.”
“The situation worsened in the last few days: dad started playing a game that he already knew he had lost. But he played it to the end thinking not of himself but of the people he loved and will continue to love wherever he is find it now.”
