The two of them kissing on the street, hugging at a concert, elegant before going out, together in the most difficult moments in the hospital. The video and images published by Eleonora Palmieri, 29 years old, one of the survivors of the fire that broke out in Crans-Montana on New Year’s Eve are a hymn to life and love.
An intimate montage where happy memories intertwine with the harshest images of the present: his face marked by burnsthe bandaged hands, the hospital bed, the first steps towards a slow and tiring recovery. «Life is made of fear, but above all of courage and strength to move forward», writes Eleonora, choosing to show her face as it is today, without filters.
«Behind every article and every newspaper headline there was real life», he adds. A veterinary surgeon, originally from San Giovanni in Marignano, in the Rimini area, just in recent days she was transferred from the Niguarda hospital in Milan to the Bufalini major burns center in Cesena, closer to home.
Still hospitalized in intensive care, Eleonora talks about her journey alternating images of before and after: normality suddenly broken, the body that changes, everyday life that transforms into resistance. Always next to her is her boyfriend Philip Boniface. It was he who saved her life that night: he looked for her in the chaos and dragged her out of the burning room. “Together even in that room,” she writes, publishing a photo taken in the hospital.
The burns mainly affect the face and hands, in addition to the damage caused by inhaling the fumes. His condition is stable, but recovery will be long. In his message, there is also a message for those who have not returned home: «A thought for the angels who did not survive. Never stop honoring life.”