The 12th was always going to be a tough day for us. I had taken the extra two days in Rome so i could be with the boys on this day. None of us were looking forward to it.
For those who dont know, the 12th of April was the date when, last year, two of our mates, Billy O'Connor and Sam Turner were killed in a car accident.
None of us could beleive that this was a year since that had happened last year. It seemed like yesterday i was sat down and told the news. But for their anniversary, we wanted to do something special. Shep (Henry Shepherd) and Job (Jack O'Brien) had called ahead and had been told that there was a priest at St Ignazio Church in Rome who had connections with Riverview, and was good friends with Father Chris Gleeson a former Headmaster of the College back in Riverview. We thought this was a good lead, and although we couldnt contact him we thought if we went we might be lucky and we could celebrate a mass for the boys and really do something special for them. We knew that back home there was a memorial mass for them and we thought this would be a really good way to remember the fellas on the other side of the world: a bunch of mates getting together to remember their lost friends.
Well that was the idea at least.
No one on that morning felt like doing too much. Even the night before had been a pretty emotional and teary event. We slowly awoke and set off. The morning was spent slowly tottering around Rome and trying to come up with a plan. None of us were motivated and werent really up for doing much. We say the old Foro ruins and then walked to the Circus Maximus and then to the Colloseo. We all took a break underneath the Colloseo and bought gelato (we must have bought out Rome of gelato by now! We were also serious gelato conniseuers - mum i need your french help! We knew all the good places to get gelato and the best flavours! Haha i think that is called addiction!). Just as we sat down we looked up and passing us were three of the Gappies from Joeys. We couldnt believe it! These were the boys we had played last year in rugby and to add an extra twilight zone point to that, the boys that had got together in Rome had almost all played in the social rugby team against these boys last year! we stopped and chatted to them, which turned into a story swapping session that lasted well over an hour. Hoges and I went to pick up Fraz who had gone back to the campsite, and we took an hour and the fellas were still in exactly the same spot when we returned! It was good to see some other familiar faces and have a chat to some locals from home.
We all decided by then, however, that we had set out to do something that day, and we were really avoiding it, and so i rallied the troops and we went to try and find the church of Saint Ignatius.