Goodbye Marta, beautiful smile of the "Toto e Tata" shop in Follonica

The woman had worked in the children's shop for twenty years: she fought with all her strength against the disease

Marta died in the night between Saturday and Sunday after a long illness that marked her deeply and against which she tried to resist with great strength of mind. Until a year ago, the follonichese had worked in the Toto and Tata toy store, an activity where she had spent more than twenty years, and before that she had been a Paoli leather shop assistant on Via Roma. His first job, however, had been side by side with his father, inside a wallpaper shop opened in Piazza XXV Aprile. "Marta has worked with me for over twenty years," he says Laura Nelli, owner of Toto and Tata – we spent a lifetime together and I still have a very fond memory of her. She was a friend and it was terrible to see her suffer, even though she has always shown great strength in facing the disease. My daughter Frida grew up with her, just like one of the family and it was awful for her to die. "

«Hi Marta – Laura's daughter wrote, 13 years – you have always been an example for me, always kind even when I made you angry. I know you are not suffering now, I know you are well now. This is enough for me, because in all these years you have made me feel so good ».

For some years Marta had left the Gulf city to move to the Casteani countryside, in the Municipality of Gavorrano, next to her sister Enrica who took care of her until last Sunday. No son and no partner but a great passion for the work he carried on until Toto and Tata closed its doors in August 2018. "When I was little I left my fingerprints many times in the windows of Toto and Tata – he wrote Marta on the occasion of the closure of the business – For me it was like entering a fairy tale every time. One day I found myself part of it for a good twenty years. I never thought I could live this magic even as an adult: I savored the scent of each toy, the desire of every child to see his favorite toy. I remember the letters addressed to Santa Claus, their and our wishes. It can't end: I say it with tears ". Marta continued to work for the public even after the operation, with crutches and a mask: "She worked until we closed – Laura says – she loved being with children and we shared the pain of the end of an era" .