“I like to think they wanted to wait until the end,” says Roberto, the son of Danilo Garborin78 years old and Adriana Lungo, 75, married for 54 years, died 19 hours apart. Theirs was a great love, born when they were kids and Adriana, originally from Chiusa Pesio, worked in a bar in Cuneo. Danilo was born in Rivoli, his family is originally from Bassano del Grappa but he began to frequent the Granda first during military service, in the Alpine troops, then for work, he was a surveyor. They fell in love, married in 1968 and spent their life in Cuneo. Danilo found work at Silbelco di Robilante, then at Dutto di Borgo and Bottero, as a technician he followed construction sites throughout Italy. “Mom has always taken care of him, of me, of the family”, remembers his son. Husband and wife had a passion in common, sport, she judge Fidal in athletics, he timekeeper of the Italian federation, followed athletics and snow sports, was a member of the local section for over 30 years, active until the illness did not force him to rest.
“He timed the greats of world sport, such as Carl Lewis or Stefania Belmondo, at the time a promising athlete who trained in the mountains of the Cuneo area”, recalls his son. You have participated in international meetings around the world, in Bari, Tripoli, Sarajevo. “One year he set the record in the time trial launched as a non-professional, he was a timekeeper, he had set the times of all the athletes, then he also threw himself in”. For some years he had received the title of meritorious timekeeper of the Cuneo association.
“We remember him with great affection,” said President Camillo Roggery. Husband and wife often met together on the athletic fields, she as judge, he as judge and timekeeper. “If the Cuneo timekeepers association has reached national levels it is also thanks to him, with his precision and his grace he has been able to train many timekeepers”, remembers Beppe Via, head of athletics Roata Chiusani.
“Today I am losing dear friends,” he adds. Danilo loved sport and practiced it, he was passionate about the mountains. “Since he retired, once a week he would meet up with friends – says his son – we called them the grandparents of the mountain, and they reached peaks, lakes and shelters here in the Cuneo area”.
For some years he had been ill with Alzheimer’s. His wife took care of him for a long time. “Then one day she fell into the house – says her son – We had tests and we found out that she was sick, she had cancer”. Thus husband and wife, who had spent a lifetime next to each other, found themselves separated, he in a specialized structure, she in different structures. “They talked to each other until Christmas, on the phone, then my dad wasn’t able to communicate anymore.” They got worse together without knowing it.
Danilo left first, and Adriana, without knowing anything about her husband, died nineteen hours later. HE in the night between Sunday and Monday, she Monday evening. Their funeral will be celebrated tomorrow at 10 in the parish church of the Immaculate Heart of Cuneo.