Man overcomes poverty in Italy to realize creative dream in B.C. [Video]

COQUITLAM, B.C. –

When he happened upon an online video about his hometown in Italy, Cosimo Geracitano couldn’t have been more surprised.

“I was shocked,” Cosimo says. “I said, ‘That’s me!’”

Cosimo recalls the black and white photo of a sad-looking boy being taken when he was four, but had never seen it until now.

“We were the poorest of the poor,” Cosimo says.

His home was one room shared by four people, with no electricity or running water.

“It was not a happy time for me,” Cosimo says.

So Cosimo started escaping through art, drawing characters from the comic books he couldn’t afford, and painting a ship on the wall that he dreamed of sailing away on.

His talent was recognized by his mom.

“She took my hands on her hands,” Cosimo recalls. “And she said, ‘You have magic hands. You can do anything.”

But no one could have imagined how magic, until after Cosimo left Italy on the real version of the vessel he’d painted, after he created a …