My name is Anna Marchitto and I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my professional experiences in Solbiate (Como) with the Monks of  the Fatebenefratelli.

For the last 31 years, I have been working in the Solbiate Nursing Home where I coordinate activities for the 212 senior citizens who live there.

My sense of kinship with the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God was instilled in me by one particular monk who has guided me throughout my entire life. His dedication to the charism of Hospitality, his wholehearted commitment to the well-being of his guests and his co-workers, his devotion to the Order’s Lombardy-Veneto Province and its Brothers, made a powerful impression on me both as a young person and throughout my life, shaping and strengthening my values and my Faith. Over time, therefore, the Charism of Hospitality, and its integration into my daily professional activities, has assumed ever greater importance for me.

Recreational therapy has always been a service that our Nursing Home has viewed as a valuable and essential addition to the overall well-being of our guests; we are well aware that care, in general, must be integrated and, particularly where the elderly are concerned, must take social and spiritual needs into consideration. Only in this way, will their other treatment and therapies be at all effective.

My concept of Hospitality and what I seek to promote in the Center where I work, is that of encouraging the elderly to live in a place that is open to the world, organizing to the extent possible both their private lives and their social dimensions in something akin to a family environment. In this way, we can reduce the disorientation caused by institutionalization and help them live their new lives with greater acceptance.

As for me, after 31 years I feel myself to be part of the extended Fatebenefratelli family and continue to see my profession as a way to transmit, with dedication, my commitment to love and charity.

I give thanks to the Lord for having chosen me, for having brought me into the Fatebenefratelli family and I pray that He will give me the strength to continue along the path laid out for us by Saint John of God.