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Lino Banfi tells of the meeting with Pope Francis and his wife’s illness

In the television studio of Sunday In, with a smiling hostess Mara Venier, Lino Banfi opened on the delicate subject of his wife Lucia’s illness.

Husband and wife since 1962, the couple are facing together the Alzheimer’s disease that has affected Lucia Zagaria. And while the 85-year-old Apulian actor admits he’s having difficult years with his family, unable to enjoy old age as he would have hoped, he tells of draw the weapon of irony to get a laugh from his inseparable Lucia. Sometimes he asks me: “And if one day I don’t recognize you anymore?” And I answer her: «It will mean that we will introduce ourselves again». There is no shortage of dark moments, like when Lucia admits that she fears that her husband will die before her. But Lino Banfi is a rock and always knows how to find the sweetest words to support his wife.

Also during the Sunday episode, the comedian and actor, renamed The grandfather of Italy after having played the role of grandfather Libero for the Rai fiction for many years A doctor in the family, recalled the meeting with Pope Francis. An indelible memory for the artist, a very believer: «We were just the two of us, plus a friend of mine who had accompanied me, but who kept aloof. The Pope put a hand on my shoulder telling me that he recognized me and that he knew I was an important person. At which “, laughs Lino Banfi,” I told him that we had to start over, because in this way I felt embarrassed and unable to speak “. A very important moment of life for Lino Banfi, who, following the hearing, decided to write a letter of thanks to Pope Francis. His unexpected and very welcome response is today a precious relic, so much so that Lino Banfi has decided to frame Bergoglio’s letter in his study. Among the many words of praise and esteem, Pope Francis wrote to the actor: “Thank you for being a witness to the joy. Continue to make everyone smile, because a smile is a caress made from the heart ».

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Lino Banfi, the viral “porca puttena” and the dream of 11 July

Lucia, wife of Lino Banfi, and a beautiful love story (beyond the disease)

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