Julia's story (the name is fictional) is like that of many boys and girls who lost a parent during the pandemic. "These young people have experienced grief and have not had a chance to process it," explains Giovanna Bonvini, a psychologist at Mandorlo, a family counseling center in the province of Lodi in northern Italy, which has followed many families affected by the death of a loved one in the first wave of COVID in 2020. "At that time the key steps that help people accept the loss of a person were missing: saying goodbye one last time, attending their funeral or sharing their grief with family and friends. All the protective factors for the physiological processing of grief have been skipped: children and adolescents have been suspended in suffering, which has been prolonged, creating greater damage." The family climate was severely compromised, and the children felt it According to research conducted in 21 countries and published in the medical journal The Lancet, in Italy 3,201 minors lost a parent to COVID during the first year of the pandemic: 671 were motherless, 2,529 fatherless, and one child lost both parents. Added to this are the 366 children or adolescents who lost a grandparent serving as their foster parent, and another 2,214 who lost grandparents or relatives who lived in their same household. Despite these numbers, Italy still lacks a specific plan of psychological, social and economic support for orphans of COVID victims. A bill providing support in favor of these minors was presented in March 2021, but it is currently blocked in parliament. In the meantime, each local community has responded by activating its own resources: associations, family counseling centers or the child neuropsychiatry departments of hospitals. Services that, however, differ from region to region. "In our area, although the impact of the pandemic has been devastating, solidarity has been very strong and a very efficient social network has been mobilized," says Enrica Bianchi, manager of Il Mandorlo counseling center. "Children lost their daily routines overnight: they could no longer go to school, see friends or other attachment figures. Families were isolated at home, with no news of hospitalized relatives, waiting for a phone call. The family climate was severely compromised, and the children felt it."