Today is the party of Irene, her 18 years.
Indeed, today is the feast that Irene's mother, Anna Claudia Cartoni - lost at sea in the Argentario after the nautical accident of 23 August and never found again - would have wanted for her.
An entire Palazzetto dello Sport, in Cisterna di Latina, sang the Happy Birthday to you for Irene, severely disabled, who laughed at the giant cake made of polka dots, polystyrene and love from her cousins Monica and Cecilia.
Hundreds of people, family, friends, in the party of love and sport "TOGETHER FOR ANNA CLAUDIA", wanted by the gymnasts of the last Serie A team trained by Cartoni, former gymnast, federal technician and international judge of artistic gymnastics.
Three hundred gymnasts engaged in an intense program of competitions-competitions, in the Palasport of Cisterna di Latina, under the gaze of the sepia-colored gigantograph of Anna Claudia, judge among the judges of the young promises in the competition.
The woman lost her life in August with her antiquarian friend Andrea Coen in the accident at sea between the Argentario and the Island of Giglio - where a motorboat driven by a Danish tourist split a sailboat in two - and is was searched for days in the seabed by submarines and special vehicles of the Coast Guard, only to be declared missing.
What does Irene understand about what she has lost?
What do you know about that mother for whom sport was work, personal passion, a place of involvement of her daughter's disability, who climbed with her, ran at the joelette world championships,
danced and sang, did gymnastics?
What do you miss from that life of sport, love, sweetness, care, wind in your face and strong sensations related to movement?
It is not easy to say.
Certainly Irene for her 18 years today had the big party that her mother wanted for her.
"A party for life, which Anna Claudia loved despite the many difficulties and which she had the courage to live to the full", says her sister Emanuela.
On her stands the many friends, the associations she belonged to, the sports federations and many disabled children, who came to celebrate Irene.
Dragged into a dimension of total love, music and joy, she danced in a wheelchair in the small choreography designed for her by Claudia Gargiulo, former Olympic and student of Anna Claudia, one of the organizers with the gymnasts of the Vertigo company.
"TOGETHER FOR ANNA CLAUDIA" is the committee born in anticipation of the Foundation - to which the charitable donations of the event will go - dedicated to her to protect the rights of the disabled, their social inclusion and the theme of 'After Us'.
"Irene is cute" is the title of her book written by her mother, a diary of the first hard years of life in pediatric intensive care but also of the many moments of joy and sharing of her.
Irene is pretty, as the nurses used to say to her mother in the days when she was better, when she arrived at the hospital out of breath, with the smile and the strength that she then brought to all the battles for the inclusion of disabled people in school and in all kinds of activity that gave them emotions and made them feel loved.
And Irene was looking pretty today, and she smiled all the time
