[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]”\u2026 Yet once again, fate confronted us with events we neither expected nor ever wished to imagine.<\/p>\n
Within a span of just ten years, both my father and mother left us, struck by the illness that was then considered invincible\u2014cancer. I suddenly found myself faced with the necessity of becoming the head of the family.<\/p>\n
I immediately felt the responsibility to inform the Pirelli brothers of the immense loss that the company would soon have to endure; a certain affectionate gratitude had long bound the two brothers to their general director.<\/p>\n
I tried every avenue, but as I mentioned, no one at that time knew how to confront cancer. My father was attended by two professors who, in my opinion, knew as little about the disease as I did. The illness had been diagnosed a few months earlier by our family doctor as nervous exhaustion. I sought the expertise of [Mario] Donati, the greatest Italian surgeon then alive. Donati gently ruled out any possibility of intervention\u2014at least with regard to my father. At that time, the liver was inoperable. (\u2026)<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, my father died in excruciating pain, reduced to a mere shadow of himself yet always courageously present, as if to show us that he was not afraid but trusted in us. (\u2026)<\/p>\n
That morning, after a visit from Father Zucca [Enrico Zucca, a Franciscan friar who maintained close relationships with the most influential and affluent families of Milan\u2019s aristocracy and business circles\u2014and who, in \u201946, would gain a certain notoriety for his involvement in the concealment of Mussolini\u2019s body, editor\u2019s note] at the urging of Tommaso Gallarati Scotti, I was in the small garden of the building [the Columbus Clinic in via Buonarroti, Milan, editor\u2019s note] with my friend Lele Pesenti when Colonel Bettoni, who had been my superior in Savoia [the Savoia Cavalleria Regiment, where Guido had served, editor\u2019s note], rode by on horseback accompanied by his attendant. Bettoni stopped and heard the news; he was visibly shocked. Meanwhile, his horse, with its long, graceful neck, quietly nibbled at the hedge that separated us.<\/p>\n
This remains, for me, the final memory of that unspeakable tragedy.<\/p>\n
In a room nearby lay the lifeless simulacrum of the person I had loved most. A farewell forever to pleasant conversations, an unparalleled example of tolerance and generosity\u2014a man never seen as an adversary, but as someone to be respected, instructed, and aided.<\/p>\n
I believed that everything was over, but the years that followed taught me that one can continue to love a departed soul with the same passion as when they were alive. And so I did, and everything seemed to carry on as before. (\u2026)”<\/p>\n
As was customary at the time, the solemn funeral of Giuseppe Venosta\u2014complete with a brass band\u2014was immortalized in a photographic album. We have images of the funeral procession\u2019s departure, preceded and followed by an exceedingly long cortege that wound its way from the \u201cColumbus\u201d clinic along the entire route leading to the church of San Pietro in Sala in Piazza Wagner, where the funeral rites were celebrated. Behind the casket were family members\u2014the widow Argia and the three children: Guido, at the center dressed in civilian clothes, and Luigi and Giorgio, both in military uniform; just behind Guido and prominently featured was Luisa Quintavalle, who shortly thereafter would become his fianc\u00e9e and wife. Pirelli sent an abundant delegation that, marching behind its banner and serving as an honor guard in the church during the rite, offered a fitting final salute.”[\/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”6″ gap=”15″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1743197480417-fcd72ebb-5f58-7″ include=”67949,67948,67947,67950″][vc_column_text]Sources:<\/b>
\nAlbiate, Villa San Valerio Archives, Guido Venosta Archive, G. VENOSTA, Unpublished Memoirs (1996-97), pp. 38\u201340.<\/p>\n
Bibliography:<\/b> Within a span of 10 years, between 1939 and 1949, both of Guido Venosta’s parents, Giuseppe and Argia, died from the disease that was once considered invincible\u2014cancer. This had a tremendous impact on him, laying the foundation for the resolve that, more than twenty years later, would drive Guido to work tirelessly to ensure that cancer would no longer be invincible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":67946,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-67376","protagonista","type-protagonista","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonista\/67376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonista"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/protagonista"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonista\/67376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67988,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonista\/67376\/revisions\/67988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n[According to the online editorial team] \u201cHere’s How a Friar Helped Hitler\u2019s Interpreter Flee from Italy,\u201d in\u00a0San Francesco Patrono d\u2019Italia<\/i>, published on 03-04-2017 (https:\/\/www.sanfrancescopatronoditalia.it\/notizie\/cronaca\/ecco-come-un-frate-aiut%C3%B2-la-fuga-dell-interprete-di-hitler-dall-italia-40391<\/a>).[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"