Last farewell to Monica Montefalcone in the Christ of the Abyss: students and sea united in memory
University of Genoa students honour Professor Montefalcone with an underwater prayer and a book of memories following her tragic death
A symbol of those who rest at the bottom of the sea and those who give their whole lives to the sea, The Christ of the Abyss will be the scene of the final farewell of Monica Montefalcone, a lecturer at the University of Genoa who died in an underwater cave together with her daughter Giorgia, researcher Muriel Odenini, recent graduate Federico Gualtieri and boatmaster Gianluca Benedetti.
The students of Montefalcone will descend - after the funeral - to a depth of -17 metres in the Bay of Silence in Camogli, where the Christ is located, for a moment of prayer, to remember the teacher who was able to teach what love for the sea really is. And it is the students of Distav-UniGe who are the protagonists in the memory of their teacher.
It was also from them that the initiative to create a kind of cahier de doleur, a little book that can be found in the student lounge of the Athenaeum and that immediately featured around 30 writings dedicated to the lecturer and some photographs.
"Thank you prof for everything you have done for us," writes a student, "for all the people to whom you have given a smile, an extra hope to keep going even in the darkest moments. Thank you for everything you have transmitted. Now everything I do in science I will do knowing that you are watching me from up there. I will dedicate everything to you, prof'. Someone pasted a smiling photo of Monica Montefalcone, others will leave the memory of her presence on those pages.
Students: let's ask for a web page reminding prof. Montefalcone
A webpageremembering Professor Monica Montefalcone, lecturer at Distav-UniGe died with her daughter Giorgia, with researcher Muriel Oddenini and with recent graduate Federico Gualtieri in an underwater cave in the Maldives, but above all "who remembers what the professor did for this university".
The request is from the students of Montefalcone who want 'to be remembered for all that she has been and all that she has done. We would like it to be on the university website, but if it is not possible we will do it ourselves'.
