Patricia Rizzo, a dual citizen of Belgium and Italy, embodied the cosmopolitan spirit of thousands of Brussels-based residents from across the European Union’s 28 member states, who effortlessly navigate language and borders.

Ms. Rizzo, 48, who died in Tuesday’s attacks on Maelbeek subway station, was the daughter of an Italian family from Calascibetta, near Enna, Sicily. She was born in Belgium, graduated from a university in Brussels and felt equally at home there and in Italy, where she sometimes vacationed, most recently in her family’s tiny village.

Cheerful and possessed of an independent streak, she moved back and forth between Italy and Brussels, working in the human resources department of a European training foundation in Turin, Italy; as an assistant to the director of the European Food and Safety Authority in Parma; and, most recently, for the European Research Council in Brussels.

“After a few days of excruciating waiting and angst, our worst fears have been confirmed,” the research council told The Associated Press in a statement.