FOUND AFTER 30 HOURS - THANKS TO A DOG

Dementia-related illness is, because of this and subsequent events, a subject close to my heart so it is good to be able to share with you, tonight, a patient's story with a happy ending. What is more, it is a story of which Simi the dog wholeheartedly approves!

When Michele Giannone, an 87-year-old from the nearby town of Scicli, went missing at around midday on Saturday, his two daughters were quick to  raise the alarm as their father sometimes has memory difficulties. Carabinieri and municipal police immediately launched a search and they were joined by 66 men and women from Italy's Civil Protection Service plus one other very important helper - Kyra, a two-year-old labrador.

As soon as Kyra arrived on the scene, she indicated to her owner that the area to search was a path along the Modica-Scicli river and, despite an erroneous report that Mr Giannone's body had been found in the local cemetery, where he often went to visit the graves of his loved ones, officers and volunteers kept searching while Kyra kept excitingly wagging her tail and barking.

Finally, at 3.45 on Sunday afternoon, Mr Giannone was found, lying face-down in the water.  At first his rescuers feared the worst but Mr Giannone was alive, with grazes all over his body and signs of frostbite.  He was rushed to a local hospital and was later transferred to Modica's Ospedale Maggiore.  He would not have survived another night in the cold.

Mr Giannone's rescuers held a celebration and who do you think was the most feted guest?

Photo: http://www.corrierediragusa.it/

Update:  Mr Giannone's condition is now said to be critical and my thoughts are with him and his family. Whatever happens, I think the positive side of this story is the fact that literally no stone was left unturned in the search for him and that a whole community showed that it cares about its elderly and most vulnerable citizens.

'TIS THE SEASON [6]....

.... to love those we are with and to think of those who have reason to be sad at Christmas.

Of all the news stroies I have written for Italy Magazine in the past year, there is one that I cannot get out of my mind.  Anyone who has been a carer has had desperate moments and this is a tragic example of what can happen if one of those moments comes when the person feels that they have no support and nowhere to turn.

If there is a loving and forgiving God, may he take pity on this woman at this time and may he bless her poor little ones, wherever they are.

This Christmas night my heart is with all who need care and those who help them.

HELP OF THE HELPLESS

I admire people who reach out to those whom society discards.  This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine on Friday and it is about one such person:

Don Mario Picchi

Rome said goodbye to a great friend of the lost and abandoned on Tuesday. Don Mario Picchi, who died last Saturday at the age of 80, was a priest who, from the late 1960s, devoted his life to fighting drug addiction and those affected by it.

Born in Pavia in 1930, Don Mario became a priest in 1957. Ten years later he was called to Rome to assist in the Vatican’s charity projects. In 1968 he began to organise groups of volunteers to help drug addicts and went on to create the CeIS [Centro Italiano di Solidarietà] and his famous “Progetto Uomo” [“Project Man”] a series of educational and therapeutic programmes for drug addicts and their families.

His philosophy and programmes became models for other projects not only in Italy but around the world because the programmes were flexible enough to be adapted to other cultural, economic and social situations. In 1985 CeIS was recognised as a Non-Governmental Organisation by the UN Economic and Social Council.

Don Mario was also a writer and among his publications are: “Intervista sulla droga e sull’uomo “ [“Interview on Drugs and Man”] [1984], “Dietro la droga un uomo” [“Behind the Drug is a Man”] [1991] and “A Braccia Aperte” [“With Open Arms”] [2002]. “Progetto Uomo” has been translated into many languages. Of those he helped he wrote,

“We are a group of poor souls on the streets of the world. One day the members of this group will leave me and take their independent paths. I hope that faith in the ability of man, any man, will go with them.”

Don Mario received many awards and decorations and was created a Grande Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana. Speaking at his funeral, Cardinal Agostino Vallani said,

“He welcomed all. His door was always open”.

As a last gift to Don Mario, the city of Rome is to donate land on which members of his community will be able to create and tend a market garden.