Wish You Were Here.....
Ascension
And if I go,
while you're still here....
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
....I will be there.
Colleen Corah Hitchcock (dedicated to you from JJ8BGY)
Lodovico was born in Milan on November 29, 1981.
He spent his childhood in Milan and Budapest, where his mother was born, along
with his grandmother learning Hungarian as well as Italian. In Milan he attended
primary school and then secondary school specializing in linguistics where he
learned English, German and a little bit of Spanish. It's here where he met some
of his dearest friends: Serena, Filippo, Laura, Christian e Silvia.
In 2001 he began to work for Globeground, in Malpensa Airport, a company that
manages flights for some airlines, which them the major customer is Lufthansa.
After a short period as check-in agent he moved to OPS. From there started
between us a good and sincere friendship that went far outside from the working
atmosphere. On the job I taught him some things tied to our profession and I
transmitted him my passion for the flight, the airplane and all that it's legacy
to aviation. For us Lufthansa became a standard for the accuracy and the safety
of the flights we managed. After about one year I moved to Linate Airport and he
continued to work as Ramp Agent in Malpensa Airport. With the arrival of new
customers such as Varig and Air Bourbon, he obtained licenses to dispatch on the
ramp B767, MD11 and A340-200. In April 2005, during a short vacation in Budapest
with his girlfriend, he started to show some signs of fatigue, and when he was
back to work his concentration began to laps. His supervisors suggested him to
have a checkup and, unfortunately, a brain anomaly was diagnosed. At this point
he started a series of treatment to fight the illness, which brought him twice
to the United States to be treated by american doctors. His Malpensa and Linate
colleagues and his friends were worried about his health and collected some
money (15,000 Euro) to give an economic support to his family for the treatment
needed. During the illness his only wish was to recover fast in order to go back
to work, a thing that demonstrated his great passion. Unluckily Lodovico's
conditions got worse and every time I had the opportunity to visit him, his
sufferance and his effort to remain alive were clearly evident.
The last period was the worse and, because of his depression for the illness, he
was not speaking anymore.
On December 8th 2005, a day in which I had planned to visit him, he went into a
coma. The next day, on December 9th 2005, to my great sorrow, he passed away at
the age of only 24..... (Matteo)
Lodovico and Matteo
I had
the opportunity to know him for the first time at last Christmas gathering
between forum members. The more the years go on, the less I can tolerate the
meanness and indifference of many people around us. You start to seek the world
as good and bad, looking, sometimes desperately, something about the first ones
in every person you meet, hopefully to find a reason to be proud about life. I
confess that the eyes of this boy made my heart to beat: mirror of his soul,
that for an entire afternoon has spoken about goodness, altruism and about
everything nice that can be found in the look of a human being. I have thought
about this for several months, and just for this reason, I do not succeed in
giving myself any explanation of what happened.
Why the blessed God decided to deprive us of 24 old boy so close to Christmas is
a question I cannot give an answer to. Let's accept it, like many other things
in the life.
I'm 30 years old.... by now giving up is a thing I had to get used to.
Goodbye my friend. With love. (Honeywell)
On the forums we like
to remember him in this way (in italian):
Aviazionecivile.it
POL
His hope and his joy
about life (also in italian):
May 2005
June 2005
An airplane for Lodovico
Which is the best
way to remember Lodovico?
Aviazionecivile.it believes that the best way should be to have an aircraft named
after him flying around the world.
We will ask this to an airline and started a petition to support this initiative
so we ask everyone reading this page to support this initiative as well sending
the following e-mail:
Subject:
An
airplane for LODO
Text:
Dear Sirs,
with this petition I would like to express the wish of seeing one of the
aircraft of Your Airline to be named after our late friend Lodovico Settembrini
(or “LODO”), an aviation enthusiast that was a ground staff in Milan Malpensa
airport, by putting his name on a small part of the fuselage. Lodovico left us
at the age of 24 after a long illness on December 9, 2005.
Confident that You will understand the importance of giving our friend the
chance of still flying among us I bring you my best regards.
Complete it with your name, surname and e-mail address and send it to: airplane4lodo@aviazionecivile.it
If you want to send any kind of contribution about Lodovico (photos, stories or any experience you may had with him) you can do by sending it to: info@aviazionecivile.it
Here are some more photo kindly sent from Lodovico's family
LODOVICO
9 DICEMBRE 2005
Death is nothing,
I have simply crossed over to the other side.
I am me,
you are you.
What we were for each other, we are still.
Give me the name you have always given me.
Speak to me like you have always done.
Don't use a different tone,
Don't be solemn or sad.
Keep laughing at what made us laugh together...
Smile. Think of me, smile with me.
Say my name at home,
like it has always been said,
without any empashis at all,
without traces of shadow.
Life signifies what it has always signified.
It is what it has always been:
the cord is not cut.
Why should I be out of your thoughts,
just because I am out of your sight?
I am not far.
Just on the other side of the road.
(Charles Peguy)
(1873 – 1914)
The following is a touching message we received from a person close to Lodovico during his illness.
I had the pleasure to meet Lodovico and his Mom in 2005 when
he came to Boston
to undergo a clinical trial treatment for his illness. I was the Clinical
Researcher Coordinator for the clinical trial he was to become part of so I
spent a considerable amount of time with him during his two visits. I can
honestly say he was one of the nicest and hopeful people I have met. I
still
think of him often and how unfair it was for him to be stricken with such a bad
illness. Unfortunately, for those of you who don't know, this
illness is
usually a young person's illness. And we are trying to find a cure
and better
treatment. I have a picture of Lodovico over my desk from when he was well
so
I don't have to be reminded of him when he was not.
I was deeply saddened when I found out Lodovico passed away on December 9.
On
December 10, friends gave me a Christmas present of a wooden Pinocchio they had
bought for me in Italy. When I went to work on Monday, December 12, I had
a
feeling that something was just not right while I was walking into the hospital
building. I learned that morning from the doctor that Lodovico had passed
away.
I went home that evening and put my Pinocchio in a prominent place in my living
room, hanging on a lamp, where the light can shine on him and be a shrine to
Lodovico.
Joanne,
Neurosurgery Research Project Manager
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Just one more photo sent from one of Lodovico coworker
