, , , , 2 Comments

[Image: A blonde white woman and brown-haired white man taking a selfie together]

Part 15 of a series of posts honoring the Grenfell Tower victims.

Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, from the 23rd floor of
Grenfell Tower

Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, 26 and 27 years old,
were an Italian couple who both worked as architects. They each called their parents before they died in the tower. Details of their final conversations can be found online, but are very distressing.

Marco worked at the London-based Creative Ideas & Architecture Office, while Gloria had worked at Peregrine Bryant Architecture Building and Conservation for only a week.

Macro loved roller-skating and football, and socialising with large groups of people. Gloria was shy, Marco’s mother told The Guardian, but very loving:

“She tiptoed into our lives … but as we got to know her, she was a ray of light. She was very beautiful and caring. I knew exactly why my son wanted to be with her. They had a great love between them, she always had her arms wrapped around him.”

Gloria’s home town of Camposampiero mourned for her: large crowds came out, flags were lowered to half-mast, and shop shutters were closed. Marco’s family were given items he had had with him when he died. “My wife kept a shred of the trench coat that Marco had bought in London,” his father told the Italian press.

At the Grenfell inquiry, Gloria’s mother spoke of her anger. She said she hoped the person who decided to place flammable cladding on the tower could feel the pain of the survivors and victims. “I hope this anger is going to be a positive anger. I would like this anger to help to find out the truth of what happened,” she said, and there was applause at the end of her speech.

Many tributes were paid to the couple as time went on. The Grenfellove foundation was set up in honour of them, and Gloria’s company set up a scholarship, the Gloria e Marco Award, for architects. And in 2018 Marco’s mother Daniela created a children’s book about the couple in which they, recreated as a knight and a princess, lived happily ever after together.

–

Sources

http://www.allthingsitalianandmore.club/interesting-it/7369/

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.corriere.it/cronache/18_febbraio_02/grenfell-tower-londra-papa-ragazzo-morto-marco-gottardi-conservo-suo-ultimo-messaggio-8-secondi-c8c20ac4-084f-11e8-bfab-d44c18e4815f.shtml&prev=search

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2018/may/29/grenfell-tower-fire-inquiry-tributes-continue-on-day-six-live?page=with:block-5b0d419fe4b022a3efa0c83d#liveblog-navigation

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2018/may/14/lives-of-grenfell-tower-victims-fire