Gabriele Pileri & Philip Pullella

GIGLIO, Italy, (Reuters) –Ester Percossi is able to still hear and feel people’s screams.

    She is one of the survivors of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia, the luxury cruise liner that capsized after hitting rocks just off the coast of the small Italian island of Giglio on Jan. 13, 2012, killing 32 people in one of Europe’s worst maritime disasters.

    Percossi and other survivors have returned to the island to pay tribute to the dead and again thank the islanders who, in the dark and dead of winter, helped 4,200 crew and passengers – more than six times the number of winter residents that night.

    “It is extremely emotional. It is extremely emotional.

    “I remember the screams of the people, the people who were jumping into the sea. She said that she remembered the terror and the chill in everyone’s eyes.

    While there were many heroes that night, the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, was not among them. He was called “Captain Coward” in Italy by media outlets for his abandonment of ship in rescue. In 2017, he was sentenced 16 years imprisonment on charges of manslaughter.

    One crew member who did not leave was Russel Rebello, a waiter who helped passengers get off the ship. Only a few years later was his body recovered. The massive, rusting ship was then towed away using the most expensive maritime wreckage recovery ever.

    “My brother did his duty, he lost his life helping other people, obviously I am proud of that and I think that he would be very proud of what he did, helping so many other people,” said Russel’s brother Kevin as he arrived for the commemorations.

Rebello said “I am shaking, this is unbelievable” as he entered San Lorenzo to attend a Mass for survivors and islanders before proceeding to a ceremony that saw flowers being laid in the sea.

Two-and-ahalf years later, the Concordia was still on its right side. It looked like a gigantic white whale. It was a resident’s only hope that it would never leave.

    On the night of the disaster Sister Pasqualina Pellegrino, an elderly nun, opened up the local school, the convent and a canteen to take in the shipwrecked.

    “It is a memory that never fades. Even when the ship was still there, it looked like a person who had been abandoned,  it oozed sadness, because I could see it from the window,” Sister Pasqualina said.

    “And even now it’s not nice to remember it. However, that is life. One must continue to live with the pain, and with the joy every day.

(Philip Pullella reported on Rome from; additional reporting by Yara Nagi, writing for Philip Pullella; editing by Emelia Sithole–Matarise).