The embrace of life: a story of two sisters in Italy’s quake
Five-year-old Giorgia Rinaldo was one of the last survivors to be rescued. Her older sister did not make it.
In the chaos of Italy’s devastating earthquake, an older sister’s embrace allowed a young girl to survive.
Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole recalled that around 6 or 6:30 p.m. Wednesday — 15 hours after the quake struck — he returned to a church in his diocese in the town of Pescara Del Tronto to recover its crucifix.
At the time, only metres from the church, firefighters were using their hands to dig out the two sisters, he said.
“The older one, Giulia, was sprawled over the smaller one, Giorgia. Giulia, dead, Giorgia, alive. They were in an embrace,” D’Ercole said.
He spoke beneath the crucifix that he recovered that evening, hung in a community gym transformed into a makeshift chapel, as Italy held a national day of mourning.