A family’s struggle: resilience amid injustice and hardship

This is the story of my family. It’s not the worst story, but right now, it’s far from the best. I’m originally from Italy and have been living in the UK since 2017.

This year, something truly strange and unfair happened to my family—something I still cannot understand or believe was allowed under the law. Let me explain.

My family is made up of four members: me, 26 years old; my brother, 28; my mum, 55; and my dad, who just turned 60 this year. The year I was born, my family opened a small shop in Ferrandina, a village with just 9,000 inhabitants. The shop sells scarves, hats, small gift items, and locally-made artisan products.

Despite the small size of the village, my family managed to make a living from the shop. Through hard work and many sacrifices, my parents achieved great things, like buying a home and paying off other properties that we still own today.

But let me take you back even further. My mum comes from a family of seven—five siblings and their mother. When she was just 19, my mum tragically lost her father in a car accident. It took 20 years of legal battles for her and her siblings to receive compensation for their father’s death. After decades of waiting, they were grateful not only for the resolution but also for their lawyer, who had worked with them for so long that he became like family.

Now, let’s fast-forward to when I was 19, eight years ago. My mum and her siblings received shocking news: the insurance company that had compensated them for their father’s death claimed that they had overpaid the settlement and demanded a percentage of the money back.

You can’t imagine the stress this caused my family. My grandmother and my uncles were devastated. After 20 years, none of them had the £50,000 the insurance company demanded—not to mention the money the lawyer had taken over the years, which was never declared. My parents are still paying that debt today.

This was the beginning of their downfall. First, because the entire situation was absurd and surreal—they didn’t deserve this. My grandfather had died, and now my family was being punished for it decades later. Second, because they had spent their lives working to build everything they have, only to face this unfair burden.

As if that wasn’t enough, the rise of online shopping hit my mum’s shop hard. Sales started to decline year after year. Now, most days, the shop earns between €0 and €10. It’s heartbreaking to see how something they built with so much effort is slowly falling apart.

To make matters worse, my dad was diagnosed this summer with diabetic foot, a condition that has made him unable to work. In Italy, diabetes isn’t recognized as a serious illness, so he hasn’t been able to get the support he needs. And because my parents are self-employed, they don’t qualify for many types of assistance. It feels like the system doesn’t care about people like them.

Now, it’s becoming almost impossible for them to manage this situation. I’m doing everything I can to support myself and help them, but it’s not enough. This is why I’m reaching out for help—to you, to anyone who can listen.

If you can support my family, whether by spreading the word or supporting local shops like theirs, it would mean the world to us. Every little bit helps, and it could make the difference in saving not just their shop, but their livelihood.