“This is the gift I owed my father. To tell the millions of Italians who made them rejoice, who was the man hiding behind those bulging eyes. Thus begins the intervention of the daughter of Toto 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 God's sake, he had no ambition to stay away from fame, but he didn't even grow italternating moments of popularity with times when he completely disappeared from the media radar. And it was especially in these 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 televisions in front of the hospital. He replied: “I only care about you.” And he apologized to us because he thought he had not been there as often as he would have liked, as we would have liked. I am a nurse in Verona and I came back to him in these days of deep pain. I know the end-of-life process but embarking on this adventure with your father, with a young father, is truly heartbreaking. We talked, we even joked for as long as possible. We remembered the best moments of our livesthose that can never be forgotten, that no death can ever take away from me. When Dad made his change, 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, shaking the president's hand. “For me, it was a dream to wear the black and white shirt,” he told us.
“I lived the life of a little girl, the daughter of a famous person, I didn't understand much but I loved the love of 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 wasn't always 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 a vacation in July to be with Dad. We went to the seaside at Isola delle Femmine, he wanted to take me by boat but he was already having a lot of trouble. We settled for a swim in the sea and a great fish lunch. It was wonderful.”
“The situation has gotten worse in recent days: Dad started playing a game 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 finds them now.”
