Andrew: A real trooper and teacher of life 

The moment news of his illness spread, the friends of Andrea, together with the boys and adults of Appignano started to join forces with the family in the small chapel of Madonna Addolorata. Every time the number grew and intensified their prayers for the healing of Andrea. As his hospitalization extended, they asked with faith that also Andrea’s family would find strength and peace, and that Andrea would never feel alone, even when he had to face checkups and treatments and would not suffer excessively. Precisely this year his class was preparing the children and their parents for the first communion,   and all together decided to postpone the event to next year, to allow Andrea to receive the sacrament with all of them.

Finally Andrew returned home, and his friends, knowing that his hair had fallen due to the therapy, decided to cut their hair short to welcome him back. Meantime, Andrea, like a real trooper of serenity continued the treatments, without losing his wonderful smile. After two years, Andrea seemed to have been healed, so much so that he was able to participate in the summer training course, and subsequently, in the weekly meetings of the Diocesan Movement of the Focolare.

Something new came up in 2016: the checkups revealed the need for a new round of treatments and which also this time seemed to give positive results. But precisely upon returning home from a Gen3 meeting, a serious crisis forced him to an urgent hospitalisation. Something indescribable then happened in  Appignano. Thrice a week his classmates and all those of the School, together with the young friends of Federica, his sister and the many people closet o the family, started to fill the crape of Addolorata. The kids themselves led the prayers, in an amazing spiritual atmosphere of faith in God who is Love, certain that all He sent or allows to happen, always leads to the Good. A certainty that, even when Andrea, at the age of 13 left this earthly existence, his presence in the community of Appignano has never diminished.

For two days there was an uninterrupted pilgrimage of kids and adults to the Addolorata chapel where  – where Andrew lay – to gather round the family with wake shifts so that he was never left alone. At the funeral celebrated in the parish, the church could not contain all the people. The celebrant spoke of Andrew as a “trooper” and a “teacher of life” and in recalling the strength with which he faced his illness, underlined with amazement his deep sense of humanity, fraternity and faith which the boy managed to imbue in the entire community. At the end, the children and kids launched hundreds of white balloons in the sky, as a symbol of the certainty that Andrew is now in Heaven and their great support to the family: an event that went viral on the network.

A labourer, head of a family, observed: “What impresses me most is the great number of people of various nationalities and religions. It is a real lesson also for us adults who often forget that humanity which unites us all. Andrea and his friends are our teachers of life” And a girl wrote “We prayed so hard for a miracle. And the miracle came about: a child was able to unite an entire town around him, and this is something inexpiable.” At the cemetery a girl, upon seeing a woman sobbing, went up to her and said: “Don’t cry. Andrew is now with Jesus.”

Two months have passed and the prayer sessions in  have continued every Wednesday, “It’s important that we do so,” one of the kids said. “We need to go ahead so that the fruits of the life of Andrew – that’s how I like to consider them– can continue to bear fruit among us.”