Dear Dr. Giuseppe Caprotti,
i am just finishing reading “Le Ossa dei Caprotti”, which a friend gave me as a gift. I thank you for what you recount, even with personal details.
I worked for about ten years at Manifattura – Ponte Albiate – and I loved that environment: close to home and within my reach (after accountancy school). Those were the years when Dr Guido [Caprotti], Rag. Arnone and Mr Renani (?) were in charge of sales. I remember the overflowing of the Lambro and much of the warehouse and spinning mill ‘soaking’ up to 50/60 cm. What a disaster!
I also remember the moment when Dr. Bernardo [Caprotti] separated from his wife Giorgina [Venosta]. Dr Bernardo was unrecognisable, annihilated. For months he wandered around the shelves with an absent look…
I resigned at the end of 1999 to follow another path in the footsteps of Brother Charles de Foucauld and P[iccola] S[orella] Magdaleine in the Fraternity of the ‘Little Sisters of Jesus’, founded in Algeria in 1939 and rapidly spreading over the 5 continents as a presence among the disadvantaged of life. In spite of myself, I lived mainly in Europe with the exception of two periods in Algeria: El-Abid and Beni Abbes, south of Oran.
I returned to Italy several years ago and am now in Rome in a retirement home, with other people on…the sunset path, serenely.
When you read the book, having met both Dr. Bernardo and Dr. Guido in person, the accounts of the mutual relations between the three brothers do not ring true. I deeply regret so much animosity, the contrasts between the brothers almost bordering on mutual hatred.
In everyday life we knew each other otherwise. It is true that Bernardo was a bit scary for everyone: when he appeared, it was enough to say ‘No. 1!’ for everyone to be on the alert..
I remember a different anecdote: one summer in the 1990s, Dr Bernardo offered the keys to Forte dei Marmi to Linda Mantegazza, Luisella and myself for the month of August… and so we enjoyed our holidays in Versilia.
Much sadder, however, was the departure and separation from Mrs Giorgina. Dr. Bernardo was an annihilated, unrecognisable person; for months he wandered in the warehouse among the shelves of patches…absent.
In my passages through the family, it was usual for me to have news of the Manifattura, but I only knew from the book of Mr Guido’s death. Mr Arnone tracked me down recently and phoned me often and gladly, until his demise about two years ago.
I hope he doesn’t have too much trouble deciphering my handwriting, which is declining like yours truly.
It is just a small token of gratitude to her and Manifattura Caprotti for their centuries-long presence in our Brianza… and for the good that, in spite of everything, she was able to sow among these hard-working people.
My greetings to you and your family,
Bruna di Gesù
I thanked Mrs Bruna for her testimony and explained to her that even when I was sent away from Esselunga, more than 20 years ago, my father was very sick – there is a letter on the subject from his wife Giuliana in my archives about him having contracted St Anthony’s fire – but that did not stop him from doing what he did for so many years and which I describe in brief in my book.
I can add that my father had probably, in his own way, loved both his brother Guido and my mother and then me and my sister Violetta (who was also eliminated from his life). But that he had failed – that’s the least one can say – to manage the relationship he had with us.
