(part 3)
Did you remember er, where were you when you first heard about the, the first OD?
Well I was here at home and my friends called me up and erm, they told me that he had OD'ed and stuff. I went to where he was and I stayed with him and you know the paramedics took care of him and took him to the hospital and stuff. I stayed with him for the night. My parents were away and stuff and I stayed with him for like three days that he was in the hospital and stuff. And erm, you know it was like a terrible, terrible experience. After that my parents came back, my mum tried to sort of like get a hold on the situation, like you know totally took my brother away and you know and then it was like, on him like 24 hours a day. He couldn't like go anywhere or do anything without like making sure, and his friends were like totally like, there's a group of his friends that were totally behind him as well, they were like totally like watching what he was doing and making sure that he wouldn't like get himself into like trouble or anything and things like that. But then there was like another part of his friends that were like more distant friends and stuff that you know were obviously involved in those things and stuff. And erm, like that's, you know I think...
At that time there was talk about him going into rehab.
Well yeah, I mean there is a lot, we were like imploring Davide to go to rehab, you know and the thing is that like he was 20 years old and he was totally his own responsibility and he was considered an adult by the law and we couldn't force him to like do anything. And you know he thought about it, I think he thought about it, but then he would be like no, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, you know, I mean he would like, I don't know, it's like it just, you know there was things that were like so powerful on you, they become like take really over you, like your thoughts and one second you think you're fine and then the next second you like totally lose it, you know. So like you know, it was impossible for us to like have him committed, you know, to like a rehab or anything because he was an adult. you know he had his rights and everything. He knew about that, which was really odd, he was like totally like "I have my rights, you guys can't make me do anything I don't want to do", you know. But at the same time he knew that like things weren't good, that he was like in trouble and stuff so he was like it's really odd because he, you know he would totally be chilling, he'd be like dude don't worry, I'm never doing that **** again, I'm never touching that, you know da da, da, da, like, like the whole like three hour thing and then the next thing you know it was like you know, I don't know, no. You find out that like you know he was doing drugs again or something.
But after the trip to Mexico, I think Francesca thought that he was actually in quite good shape as well. Did you, did it come as a complete shock to you when what happened happened, or did you, did you think that ....?
Well I like, I was like you know, I was like I didn't know you know, I was like this is there's very, I mean we were all in like a state of like shock and panic just from the first time that he had OD'ed you know. And then we were all like being incredibly careful. I mean we didn't think that he would even like take it to that place again you know. I had to go away for work, he went away to Mexico with my Mom, came back, we sort of had like a little argument because I got really like sort of strict with him and I drew the line and got really kind of like angry and stuff. And erm, and then we like made up, and like it's really odd because he seemed like, in moments he would seem really happy, in other moments he would seem really like sad. But it's really odd because all of this like happened in such a condensed short period of time. He wasn't taking drugs for more than like six months and then like everything happened within like two or three weeks or something, so it was like such a short period of time that like all of this was going on, and the reason why we were all so like, desperately worried about him as well was because of his illness. We knew that his body, the doctors were like "his body can't take this kind of abuse to himself", you know. He knew that as well but you know I guess you kind of like you're 21, you're 20 and you think you're like invincible. I think he thought like at that point you know he was like strong and he could handle it and stuff like that. I don't know, I think drugs can like alter your like sort of state of mind so much to the point where you don't really know like what is right or what is wrong, you can totally believe that something is right but in reality if you like talk to any other sane person they'll tell you that it's wrong. But like you're like, your mind is so confused and you're in this place where you think that you're right and everything you think is right or something, you know.
Because not many people know about all this, partly because he didn't want to blow his cool.
Yeah, that's the thing is that he was like totally cool and he totally didn't like ever let anyone see like him like blowing his cool or anything like that, you know. I think like you know, he did keep a lot of things inside and stuff, he kept a lot of things inside, but like people knew about his illness and stuff you know but like he never like let it get him down, like it never, he never let it stop him from doing something, you know. People never knew but I think the illness was getting him to a certain point, you know he would like get more tired even though he would never show people that he was more tired, like when he was snowboarding or skating, but he would be, and his bones would hurt every once in a while and stuff. And I think it must have been like, like a really intense like psychological like thing to like know that like you're, you have this thing and that you're not like completely normal. I mean he's totally normal like, you know but health wise he wasn't but like spirit wise, he was more normal and more beautiful than like anybody that you could you know. You would see him and you would fall in love with him, you'd think nothing was wrong with this kid, he was like so happy and so alive, and so like, energetic and so charismatic and like everything, and so talented. But you know down, deep, all he had a lot of information about his illness that like he knew from his hospital,. You know he would go to the hospital on his own, he had his own relationship with the doctors, where he knew all the really like heavy things about your life, that you might not live until a certain age and all your friends that have the same illness or like dying around your age of 22, 22, and you know your bones hurt and this and like you can never really be like, and the thing about him is that like he so badly wanted to be like everyone else, like normal, like a normal kid, you know. He was always like smaller and younger looking and that was the thing that really would upset him being like young looking, that he was like 20 years old and he looked like he was like 16 years old, you know. And that would really get him you know and he was like, you know sort of like down deep he was, you know, he had a lot, a lot of like really heavy stuff to deal with. And I think that's what like partly made him like you know the beautiful person that he was, like he really would like be able to like see into people and stuff because he had like such an awareness of life and the worth of life you know, stuff like that.
So in the end I mean it sounds like it was just an incredibly tragic accident, there was no, there was no, there was no...
Yeah, I mean it was just a really tragic accident and you know, it's like, I mean as you know, if he would have just gotten over this like one little like hump... like I think a lot of the whole like thing, was tied into like the fact that he was breaking up with his girlfriend and that he was really down about it. If he would just have gotten over this one little bit... when we got the autopsy back from, from, Davide had like such a little like, like amount of heroin in him and like no-one would have died from that. It was so little, the amount of heroin that he had in him, and it was just like the worst thing, like the worst thing ever, like the accident was like the whole way, everything it all happened, you know, it was like, just like disgusting.
How did the media portray him?
Umm I really like to refuse to pay attention to a lot of this stuff because you know like media always portrays things in the way they want to see it in the way that it's like you well like it's sensational or a story or this or that and of course they liked picked up on Davide and his death and then they picked up a couple of pictures, and then they turned into this like whole heroin chic, and now you know the whole big scene about it. And you know everyone, like everyone, took advantage of the moment to, to get some, something to get a story out of something. Like build something that was totally like not the way it was you know. And that's, that's why I like refuse to you know, read a lot of the articles and like this, you know this is the first interview and stuff and I'm not going to do anything else and the reason I'm doing this is because you know it's totally disgusting how my brother's name has been like totally, he's been totally misunderstood. And you know, people like just take advantage.
In a way do you think his inspiration lives on in, in what his friends are doing?
Oh so much, so much, so many of his friends are like sort of like taken like a total like u-turn in their lives and like you know, doing so like really being really positive in their attitude and in their lifestyles and in their ways and, even so many of my friends. I mean like so many people have been affected by Davide one way or another, you don't even realise it. He's, like he's shone light on so many people, like my friends, his own friends, you know, people that we don't even know. They like know about him, friends that we didn't even know he had. I mean you know, people really got a lot out of him, a lot of positive. You know Davide gave you sort of like the feeling that anything could be possible.
