Thank you, Alba, for the example of life you left us and for your commitment that continues to inspire us and hopefully will still ignite many hearts and generate new solidarity and hope.
On May 26, Alba would have been 103 years old. A historic supporter of AFN, she lived her long life under the banner of concrete faith and proximity. Shortly before her death in 2024, she made, on behalf of the group she represented, the last donation for the children of Distance Support. He had five active supports carried out together with the people of the group with whom he met for “the Word of Life”: they collected, euro after euro, the annual fee to accompany children and families in difficulty included in AFN’s projects. In this way, too, they had the opportunity to live the Gospel, which for Alba has always been a choice of social commitment, concrete and daily.
With his infectious enthusiasm and commitment, he was able to engage so many: “We lack nothing, but there are children starving. We have to help them,” he would say. People deeply understood the value of each person’s contribution in carrying out that mission, and everyone participated with what they could, even with little, but that together with others acquired great value. When Alba turned 80, she placed a container in the center of the table inviting people, rather than to give her a gift, to remember with a donation the children of the distance support; when she left us a year ago, her children also wished to do the same in her memory.
A volunteer from her group recounts, “The supported children slowly became part of the community. Alba remembered their names, their stories, their progress…. She would read the little letters and updates from the projects aloud and fondly say : ‘Paul made his First Communion’; ‘This other one went on to high school.’ Gradually the group expanded, spreading the values of solidarity and fraternity throughout the neighborhood.
When she had arrived many years earlier, newly married, there was nothing in that area. Not even a church, so Alba had begun to raise awareness and involve local people so that together they could rent a garage where a priest they had asked the bishop could say Mass. So the Word of Life group was formed, first small, then bigger and bigger until a beautiful community was also born, it was possible to build a real church and also do many activities of which the inspirer was always her, with her ability to move hearts and consciences.
There were many areas in which she was involved in her long fruitful life as a volunteer in the Focolare Movement. She had begun her faith journey with Catholic Action, even becoming its leader, but later she was struck by the radicality with which Chiara Lubich lived the gospel and following the ‘Ideal of the spirituality of unity, she too embodied it every day in all the activities she carried out and sought to humanize with humility.
Her love for the children of distance support is one of her most beautiful legacies. As one of her friends says again, “Alba was for me and for all of us a second mother, and she continues to be a great example for all volunteers, brides and mothers; she taught us that even with little, together, you can do so much. And so when I retired, instead of a gift, I also wanted to do as she did, putting that basket in the center of the table to receive, instead of a gift, a thought for less fortunate children and join a bigger project.”
