Why Verona remembers Enzo
“Many of our friends, active in the healthcare world – doctors and nurses – were often dissatisfied and full of unanswered questions about their profession. We made this topic a theme, to help them find meaning in their work. We read Bardazzi’s book “Ho fatto tutto per essere felice” and we found all the answers we had not been able to give”.
This is where the double initiative in Verona starts, which will see on Wednesday 13 November, at the Borgo Trento hospital, a medical conference and the inauguration of an exhibition entitled “A friendship for living”, both dedicated to the figure of Enzo Piccinini.
“Enzo was often in Verona in the 90s, he was the “visitor” of the Community; therefore, the older ones had known him” – says Lorenzo Vaglio Tanet, of the group that promoted the initiative. “When we read the books dedicated to him, we said to ourselves that we needed to make this figure known to the entire hospital. And while we were looking for a suitable space for the exhibition, we were lucky enough to find great sensitivity in the director of the hospital, Dr. Callisto Bravi, who authorized us to use the Polo Chirurgico Confortini”.
Meanwhile, some friends from Verona had asked for an appointment at the Foundation “and we felt welcomed with great friendship”, Lorenzo explains. “In Bologna we met Prof. Giampaolo Ugolini and Dr. Annarita Piccinini”, who will be speakers at the conference together with Prof. Pierluigi Strippoli and moderator Marco Bardazzi. “But we wanted the conference to be something that involves Verona, so we contacted Prof. Riccardo Bonadonna, head of diabetology and endocrinology at Borgo Trento. He had not met Enzo, but he read the books and fully embraced his values”.
Having started well, the organization continued, generating curiosity and enthusiasm among doctors and non-doctors alike. But there is more. “One fact confirmed to us that we were doing the right thing. – Lorenzo concludes – Among our friends there is a 30-year-old boy with a bad case of leukemia. We watched with him the video in which Enzo tells how he faced, as a doctor, a similar leukemia in a 23-year-old boy; how to face the disease; and how to face death. Our friend was very impressed, we prayed with him and we finally understood that a medical and human approach of this kind is good for everyone”. It is, in fact, “a friendship for living“.
