Our Association in collaboration with the owners of the Osasco Castle, under the patronage of the Osasco Municipality, with the cooperation of the Pro Loco of Osasco and Bricherasio organized the benefit musical event of the Great Hope Choir of Turin in memory of Gilda.

Concert by the Great Hope Choir in memory of Gilda.

Gilda was very close to Osasco and in particular, as a Turris Eburnea girl, to Don Antonio Cacherano d’Osasco, chaplain of the Turris Eburnea in Turin, Genoa, Milan and Rome. In the large park, on April 29, 2023, a Liquidambra was also planted to commemorate the chats that Gilda used to have during her illness with Don Antonio and where, they repeated the phrase that Gilda had made her own, in the knowledge that she would not recover from her illness: “quiet whatever happens, because that’s the way it has to be” which is not a phrase of resignation, but on the contrary, of total surrender to a Superior plan, experienced by Gilda in the awareness of what was to come. Because she reassured everyone with the phrase “I’m fine!” even in the hospital bed the last days of her earthly life.

I am happy!

And in those days, Gilda also gave us some indescribable moments: for those who were not in that room… “I am happy,” after communion on January 17, 2022, and another day lying in bed, she was no longer speaking, barely, babbling something, we approached…to try to understand, it was “Hail Mary full of Grace,” and then she could no longer speak and we continued; moments that delivered us the certainty of Heaven!

Her will to live and fight against her illness made us think about how we could channel Gilda’s strength into concrete aid and projects for the weak and needy: and so we decided to organize this musical event.

The important thing is to do.

Gilda’s gift of “what matters is doing” was an invitation for us to live the present with industrious charity, to make every moment a “yes,” a response of love. Just as Gilda understood the meaning of this sentence posted on December 29, 2021, after the last interview she had with the oncologist who had treated her for two years and told her there was nothing more to be done: “Being poised between death and life can be frightening, but getting to the point where you can say how it goes must help you all the more to want to do so many and all the things of that little hope still left that hopefully lasts forever. But if not, it doesn’t matter the important thing is to do!“.

In addition to the Mission in Mongolia with Father Giorgio Cardinal Marengo, Sister Barbara d’Osasco is in our little ambitious projects, and with this event that we will present, we also want to reach with heart and music, to the Mvanda Monastery in the People’s Republic of Congo. The Great Hope Choir is the beautiful reality in Turin who have offered, after learning about Gilda’s story, to be “the natural traveling companions” for us who wanted to put on this musical event. Set in a breathtaking stage such as the Osasco Castle, the event was the subject of interest because the chosen title “it is taken to say angel…” leads to a musical reflection inspired by the book “50 angels to accompany you throughout the year” by Anselm Grün.