Young Girl Saves German Child in Garda Lake: Courage Recognized
She will be among the stars of the upcoming episodes of La Melevisione, the children’s show aired on Rai2. But if it hadn’t been for her grandmother, Mrs. Silvana Brigo from Torbole, Jessica Mazzoldi, seven and a half years old, wouldn’t even have thought of publicizing the rescue carried out on Tuesday afternoon in Lake Garda, in front of the beach of the former Pavese colony.
She hadn’t even told her parents, as if saving the life of a 5-year-old German girl, who without a life jacket was at risk of drowning in the high waters, was just an ordinary event, something that happens every day. Jessica, who was close to the young foreign girl, saw her flail and sink, and before her grandmother Silvana and her aunt, who were watching over the niece swimming from the beach and had noticed the emergency, could rush to her aid, she grabbed her arm and pulled her back to shore.
Jessica’s gesture
For the very young heroine, it was just a natural gesture, but for her grandmother, rightly, it was also an act of spontaneous generosity and great courage that deserved recognition and reward. “Grandma, I didn’t do anything special. I just pulled her up when I heard her scream and saw her going underwater,” Jessica exclaimed when told “Good job!”.
“These days,” explains Silvana Brigo, “when children are discussed mostly because of the unheard violence they suffer from adults, I felt the urge to tell the story and provide newspapers and TV with a positive, beautiful news about children. I admit, however, that I was scared when I saw Jessica in the lifeguard role; I feared the little German girl, panicking, might pull her under. And to think that my niece learned how to swim properly this year in Bibione. She used to be afraid, but now she even goes underwater.”
The response and comment
Jessica Mazzoldi, who will attend third grade in Nago this September, where she lives with her parents Marisa and Giacinto, truly deserved her victory. But the greatest satisfaction came from the girl she saved, who, crying and still in shock, first in German and then in Italian, thanked her. Ten times thank you.