An affectionate thought from sister Laura to Giampaolo

We share the greeting read by Sister Laura at Giampaolo Fasolo’s funeral last June 30.

Giampaolo,

with Leda and your family, we are a world of friends squaring off to accompany you “home,” the one that awaits us all and into which you have only entered a few hours ago.

I avoid emotional and tearful speeches that do not befit the person you have always been. Although, let me tell you, your departure leaves us devastated and incredulous.

Those who have had the privilege of crossing paths with yours realize the painful void that your physical absence imposes on each and everyone. I see Leda, strong and faithful companion of a lifetime. And the friends of your daily life who, with you, have become part of horizons of friendship and solidarity with no more geographical boundaries.

So let us look back together, once again, and starting in Africa, at the “miracle” of our first meeting back in 2007. We discovered you as a sunny, enthusiastic, generous person. A physician and surgeon passionate about the life you defended, cared for, protected.

Your professionalism was always accompanied by a human richness that alone was already as healing as medicine. The extreme respect that distinguished your relationships with colleagues and patients was an uncommon gift given to you by the good Lord.

A free spirit, open to the new, a lover of history and human affairs: you taught us that knowledge is never attained, that the humility of research and confrontation is never enough, never taken for granted.

Along with the human depth that always distinguished you and earned you the joking title of “Prince,” you filled the hours spent together with healthy laughter, intelligent humor.

Sharing with you the adventure and dream of the hospital for your poor, for your people, was and is pure joy, free privilege. My voice is THEIR voice, lent to express to you all the gratitude for taking them in, caring for them, respecting them, loving them. In the certainty that our journey TOGETHER will be brought to completion.

You will notice that I speak not in the past tense, but using a present tense that is not only grammatical.

You are with us Giampaolo, you are here and you are listening no longer with human ears, but with the new ones that remain difficult for us to accept, but which are absolutely real.

You have already turned Paradise upside down a little bit to lend a hand to your/our hospital which, thanks to you, can be completed in a very short time. In fact, you have performed the miracle of knocking out, literally “knocking out,” the Italian bureaucracy, known for its endless timelines and you have made possible a financing that was thought impossible.

Thank you “Prince,” keep it up. Together we will make it, until the day of our final meeting in the Father’s House.

Bye Giampaolo.