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Grenfell Fire: Young Italian Couple Spent Final Moments Calling Family, ‘I Am About To Go To Heaven’

By Jackie Villegas
Published on: 05:23 PST, Jun 17, 2017

A couple who lived in the doomed Grenfell Tower in West London spent their final moments saying their goodbyes to family members back in Italy.

According to reports, 27-year-old architects Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi were trapped in their apartment on the 23rd floor of Grenfell Tower, which was engulfed by flames in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 14. As of Saturday, London police have raised the number of Grenfell Tower victims to 58. This includes those confirmed dead and those still missing. Before the fire, Grenfell Tower was home to as many as 600 residents living in 120 apartments.

The Sun says that Trevisan and Gottardi are among those confirmed to have perished in the Grenfell Tower fire. Trevisan family lawyer, Maria Christina Sandrin, told the outlet that she had heard the recording of Gloria saying her heartbreaking goodbyes to her mother. The calls, she said, were “terrible” and “agonizing.”

“I’ve heard the recording of Gloria talking to her mother and there is no hope to find them alive.”

The lawyer admitted that she wept as she listened to Trevisan and her mother’s final conversation.

“She said goodbye. She said, ‘Thank you, mother, for what you have done for me.'”

Gloria Trevisan reportedly called her family at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday to tell them that a fire had broken out in the building. She said that she and Gottardi were just waiting for help to arrive. The young woman reportedly told her relatives that the fire started on the third floor of Grenfell Tower and that she thought firefighters would be able to put it out before it reached their floor.

However, the victims’ situation soon turned dire. Marco Gottardi reportedly tried to downplay their predicament, but when Trevisan’s parents turned on their TV, they saw that the Grenfell Tower fire was raging on uncontrollably. Gloria and Marco eventually had to admit that they could see the fire coming up the stairs and that there was no way for them to escape.

According to The Sun, Trevisan’s father told the Italian newspaper Il Mattino di Padova that the engaged couple tried to descend to the lower floors of Grenfell Tower but were met by flames and intense smoke. At around 4 a.m., smoke began pouring into their apartment.

By her last call, Gloria seemed to have accepted that she and Marco would not make it out of Grenfell Tower alive. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, via The Telegraph, Trevisan told her parents that she was grateful for everything they had done for her and that she would continue helping them from heaven.

“I am so sorry I can never hug you again. I had my whole life ahead of me. It’s not fair. I don’t want to die. I wanted to help you, to thank you for all you did for me.”

“I am about to go to heaven,” she said. “I will help you from there.”

After this conversation, Trevisan’s parents were unable to get ahold of her again. Her father said that he had made hundreds of calls to his daughter’s number since the Grenfell Tower fire, but to no avail.

According to his father, Marco Gottardi called his family twice just before 4 a.m. The elder Gottardi said that his son initially tried to assure him that the Grenfell Tower fire was under control.

“‘There’s a lot of smoke but don’t worry, we’re waiting for the rescuers. We opened the front door but there was too much smoke to be able to leave. The lifts are blocked.'”

“But in the second call — and I cannot get this out of my head — he told me that there was smoke, that a lot of smoke was rising,” Gottardi recounted.

“We were on the phone until the last moment.”

According to The Telegraph, Trevisan and Gottardi, both architecture graduates, moved to London in March because Trevisan was unable to find a job back home that paid more than 300 euros (about $335) a month. In London, she reportedly found work that paid £1,800 (about $2,300) and was happy with her new career. The Sun says that the victims moved to Grenfell Tower after they fell in love with the views from the 23rd floor.

[Featured Image by Leon Neal/Getty Images]

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