Anyone who has looked at my Blog will by now have realised I haven’t written anything for a while; that’s because I spent over three months in Amalfi at the end of 2014 until February of 2015, during which time I lost my very beloved son, Rupert.
I cannot say enough about the wonderful support that he and I were given by his numerous friends during that time. So many came and I do mean many, every single day; they chatted and joked with him, brought food, drinks, anything they thought he would particularly like. When he didn’t want to eat, there were the girls who gave him a kiss and asked him to eat something to please them and he always did. His men friends shaved him, washed him, shared the task of lifting him – in fact all his friends did everything they could to show how much he was loved and how much they cared for him. I was not allowed to say ‘thank you’ because every time I did, and there were many, their response would be – ‘You don’t have to thank us, we do it because we all love him’.
When we had to say goodbye to him Amalfi’s beautiful cathedral was absolutely crammed with colleagues, children who had come to him to learn English, ex-school companions, his brother Vincenzo, his cousins in Italy and English step-brothers and sisters, all who could manage to be there. I have printed here two of the newspaper tributes that were written about him. It has been some help to me to see the proof of this great feeling for my first-born and to know that he saw it as well. It means so very much because it came only from friendship, no other form of interest since he was not a wealthy businessman or of any apparent importance, only that of being a great friend to so many.
This means that my book will now take on a different aspect and I need to rewrite certain chapters, which in due course I can talk about.
Amalfi Mio 