“When they took him to the hospital, I told him: Grandpa, you survived the Germans, they were worse than this virus. You must go home.”
After just four days in the hospital, Alberto Luigi Bellucci, 101 years old, cured of the coronavirus, returned to the home of his granddaughter Elisa, in Rimini, in time to blow out the 101st candle, at a family party.
Two weeks later, however, death overcame the body weakened by respiratory diseases and the years lived.
Bellucci did not die isolated and alone like most who die from coronavirus, due to the high risk of contagion: “he managed to greet his grandchildren in a video call”, said Elisa.
“It is a moment you would never want to reach, but we had noticed your weakness. The disease left him very weak, he had difficulty breathing and speaking because of the respiratory infection. The bronchi suffered a lot. We hoped he could overcome this too, but we developed an awareness that the end was coming. He was also aware of this, was lucid until the end and managed to greet all of us before leaving. But he kept his promise: when he came home, he told me: 'yeah, you told me I had to come back, I came back'”, says his granddaughter proudly.
“It is a grace given to us, and we are grateful for it”, he concludes.
Bellucci was married for 67 years, and his wife is 92 years old.
A century of life
Born in 1919, in the midst of another global pandemic, the Spanish flu, he saw it all. Wars, hunger, pain, progress, crisis and upheavals.
Once the barrier of a century had been overcome, destiny placed before him this new challenge, invisible and terrible at the same time.
In a few days, it became “history” for doctors, nurses and all healthcare professionals, and made the pages of newspapers and websites around the world.
Read also 101-year-old man is cured of the new coronavirus in Italy
During Second World War, Bellucci was a frontline fighter with the Alpines – the mountain troops of the Italian army – and was captured twice by the Germans, who were supposed to take them to Yugoslavia. But both times he managed to jump from the train and escape the German soldiers.
With information Erika Nanni, from Corriere Romagna
FOLLOW-US
