Hi Omar.
You left suddenly in the night. Yesterday you were here in the editorial office, with us, working but also joking, because, after all, you always remembered: «I still enjoy doing this job». Together we shared a piece of the road, a path that is not always easy but with the prospect and objective of transforming local newspapers into a community and of rendering a – useful – service for this community.
Your vitality began to burst early in the morning, which is very rare for journalists, and became a crescendo of whatsapp and messages to suggest, indicate, warn, agree, keep under control the editors and the work that was growing.
Every morning before the newsrooms began to fill up, there was our daily confrontation on the events of the day, in freshly baked newspapers, on our websites, on what we had to do. And there the ideas were born, but also the heated discussions, fundamental, to then give shape to the newspaper.
“Go on like this.” And we walked on that marked furrow. Until – as often happens in the newspapers – the imponderable made it necessary to throw everything away and start over.
It is not easy to write these lines. But basically it was that trait of the profession linked to friendship that united us and that made it easier for us to work together.
You were kind and always ready to listen to us, merciless when you had to take us back. You chased the news with flair and corrected us when we were walking down an uncertain road.
You have been a valuable guide for our newspapers, a point of reference for the social, political and economic community of this region.
In the newsrooms that you have led over the years, this morning your colleagues do not rest, they walk around with swollen eyes, aware of the unbridgeable void you leave. An immense pain, which we share with your beloved and large family.