{"id":3852,"date":"2016-04-13T16:43:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T14:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/2016\/04\/13\/from-the-album-of-bonizza-s-memoirs\/"},"modified":"2021-12-05T13:45:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T12:45:55","slug":"from-the-album-of-bonizza-s-memoirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/from-the-album-of-bonizza-s-memoirs\/","title":{"rendered":"From the album of Bonizza\u2019s memoirs"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 April will be the anniversary of Igino Giordani\u2019s \u201cdeparture for Heaven.\u201d We shall commemorate him with some excerpts of an article written by Gino Lubich and published in New City no.9-10 of May 1980.<\/h2>\n

The most far away but very clear thing I remember of dad, are the walks we had together. Dad was a good hiker, and we kids would do very long walks with him. I am referring to the period immediately following the war \u2014 Bonizza says. We were living in Via Monte Zebio and we would go along the Tiber River every day. Dad was really funny: he always walked with his hands clasped behind his back, and with his head turned up to the air and face in the wind, ran the risk of bumping into something\u2026 \u00bb.
\nBonizza was the youngest of Igino Giordani\u2019s four children, the only girl, and at that time, with quite a fragile health.
\n\u00abThere was a great age gap between me and my brothers, Mario, Sergio and Brando, due to which my childhood was all about me, and my relationship with dad, which was special. I was his favourite. I had always been very close to dad. When he worked at home in the afternoons, I sat on his lap and drew. My brothers would work up an incredible din, and in the other room, mom did her vocalizing exercises. He was serene and kept writing and writing, one page after the other, without saying a word. All in all he found the sounds of home, to the rhythm of mom\u2019s solfeggio, rather pleasant.\u00bb\"57
\nGiordani managed to work in the most absurd conditions, not only at home. On the tram, the minute he took a seat, he would write. When he was on the road, or in any other circumstance, even at an official lunch, if an idea came up, he would immediately jot down a note on a piece of paper, the back of a postcard, or the margin of a newspaper, absolutely withdrawn from all that was going on around him. Then, on these fragments, or more or less handy pieces of paper that could be found in all his pockets, he retraced a clear outline of an article or a chapter of a book.\u00a0 \u00abOh yes \u2014 Bonizza smiled \u2014 he was for the Vatican or for the Chamber of Deputies, a very neat librarian, but for me, a very funny, untidy person.\u00bb
\nThere was a secret between them. Her name was Caterina, an imaginary character and Bonizza\u2019s imaginary sister, who would come into the scene every time the perfect relationship between her and her dad was at risk of breaking.\u00a0 \u00abCaterina, Caterina! \u2014Giordani would call \u2014 Come here since Bonizza here is being troublesome!\u00bb Or else if Bonizza did not do what she was supposed to: \u00abNever mind\u00a0 \u2014 he would say to her \u2014 I\u2019ll call Caterina.\u00bb Bonizza knew q\u00ecuite well that Caterina was just a fantasy, that this was a game, and yet she was jealous of her, since she was her antagonist, and later became her social conscience.<\/p>\n

\"57But rather than particular episodes, Bonizza recalls how precious her relationship was with her extraordinary dad: \u00abI spoke to him a lot every time he was free, with utmost confidence and without any inhibition. He knew everything about me. More than a father, he was my great friend. I also told him about my first crushes and all the sentimental problems a teenager could have, and he understood and counselled me.\u00bb
\n\u00abAs far as I can recall, every morning dad went to receive the Eucharist. Never did he miss a day, and at 7:00 on the dot would leave the house to go the nearest church. He always gave us the absolute freedom, in utmost respect for our choices in every field. Even in the choice of our activities he never said or suggested to do this or that. When I went to the Cabrini school and was in 4th year in secondary school specializing in classics, I didn\u2019t like it and dreamt of doing arts. It so happened that on Three Kings dad gave me five or six thousand lire. It seemed like such a huge sum and I used it to pay for some lessons from an artist, after which I went to show dad my drawings saying: \u201cThis is what I learned to do, and I would like to go to an arts school.\u201d What a tragedy it was: mom said no, you must do the classics like your brothers, and will not leave such a good school with all those nuns who love you so much, for a public school in Ripetta Street; and for my brothers, heaven forbid, the classics school is the classics school, then university\u2026 The only one who let me choose and supported me was dad.
\nHe accompanied me to the arts school, we spoke with the director, and I passed the exam. There I met so many people, from the poet, Libero de Libero, to the painter, Purificato. People of the most different ideas and also all sorts of artistic oddities all met dad, became his friends and admired him a lot.
\nHe had a unique sense of humour. Ours was a happy relationship.\u00bb\"57
\nThis doesn\u2019t mean it was something idyllic. \u00abI participated \u2014Bonizza said \u2014 in his political and cultural vicissitudes, and at times I didn\u2019t approve his choices, even religious ones. I found some quite irritating. But I understand it all now that I am more mature, but at that time I argued with him, also in a dynamic way, and he was very glad that I discussed those problems with him\u2026
\nWe have never been easy kids, and all four of us were rebellious children. We were dialectically tremendous but never in one instance did our unity with dad decrease. We have always loved one another very much.\u00bb
\n\u00abIn the last period \u2014 she recalled \u2014 dad\u2019s discourses took on a great perspective. The last time he talked about everything and he called me Caterina. I thought he was joking, and was recalling my imaginary childhood antagonist. \u201cDad \u2014 I said \u2014 are you calling Caterina like in the past?\u201d \u201cHow naughty you are,\u201d he murmured, as if to say: you don\u2019t understand. It was then that I understood, or thought I understood, that he was addressing St. Catherine. It was as if he was launching a message to me. I am reading his book on St. Catherine again. Perhaps it is there that I will find the key.\u00bb<\/p>\n

Gino Lubich<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 April will be the anniversary of Igino Giordani\u2019s \u201cdeparture for Heaven.\u201d We shall commemorate him with some excerpts of an article written by Gino Lubich and published in New City no.9-10 of May 1980. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":3848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3852"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5834,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3852\/revisions\/5834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iginogiordani.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}