Father Gérard was furious when he read the stories about his son in the media, he tells the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. Angelo (22) would have been portrayed as an idiot, because who jumps into a raging rapids? But that’s not how it went, Gérard now tells us about that fateful day in July.
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Gérard lived with Angelo and sister Marissa in Eupen, Belgium. On the day that Belgium was hit by heavy rain, father Gérard went to visit his girlfriend in Germany. That afternoon he was home for a while and watched the rain with Angelo. In some places the water was already up to the knees, but the two saw no danger in that.
‘I didn’t think it was dangerous’
When Angelo called his father in the evening to ask if he could borrow an inflatable boat to sail outside, Gérard had no problem with that. “It had been corona, everyone was looking for some entertainment after those dead months. I didn’t really think about it, what we had seen together didn’t seem really dangerous to me,” Gérard tells us. HLN.
Because Angelo couldn’t find the sealing cap of the boat that night, he decided to take an inflatable pool outside with him. He sometimes did that in the winter, to slide down the hill into the city when it had snowed. This time he slid down the hill again, only to be taken away by the water.
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Angelo sailed a little further, until he wanted to get out of the band. But when he did, he suddenly disappeared, his friends told afterwards who saw it happen. There appeared to be a whirlpool under Angelo, which had sucked him up and pulled him into the sewer. The police were called in, but Angelo was later found on the other side of the city center.
‘Hopefully nothing noticed’
The boy was resuscitated in hospital for two hours, but to no avail. Gérard’s brother-in-law is a diving instructor and told him that if you drown, you are already unconscious after the first inhalation of a large gulp of water. Gérard: “So Angelo probably didn’t notice anything about that road underground anymore. I hope so.”
By sharing his story, Gérard wants to emphasize that Angelo was a very intelligent, sensible boy. A student who spoke four languages, a beloved friend to many, and an adventurer. But one who was always careful, never did things thoughtlessly. Gérard to HLN: “Nobody – in the entire region – had ever experienced such a storm. And we were all young, weren’t we? I drove the motorcycle from the age of sixteen. I could have died a hundred times. But I have died a hundred times.” lucky. And Angelo? Once, and: pass the chance.”
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