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Vincenza Gabrielli
Vincenza
Gabrielli has lived for fifty years in the beautiful
city of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche, Region. Augusto
met her in 1977 during one of his many trips and
created with her a extraordinary spiritual relationship
that has lasted up to his passing on.
Vincenza started her interest in spiritual problems
when she was young, her own spirit being that
of a researcher. She felt the need to discover
the role of mankind in the creation, and from
where do feelings and values come.
When she was young she enjoyed sports, running
the 250 metres race and doing long jump with promising
results.
From her marriage to Franco they have had two
wonderful children, Andrea and Serena who today
are both happily married.
The early years of Vincenza's life were very happy
and her relationship with Franco was very strong.
At the age of twenty-five she discovered that
she was suffering from multiple sclerosis. The
course of the illness, progressive and implacable,
continued to progressively reduce her physical
abilities but not her mind or spirit which continued
to mature, creating in her an extraordinary strength
of spirit and morale.
Twenty four hours a day she is assisted by family,
friends, the health services of the city and the
section of the AISM of Ascoli Piceno of which
Vincenza is the Vice President.
A few years ago, a tragedy hit Vincenza, the unexpected
passing on of her adored husband Franco, her companion
and support, a fatality for such a sweet woman,
forced for years to a life on a wheelchair! Vincenza
has continued to try and lead a normal life dedicating
her time to travelling for meetings, going as
far as Locarno in Switzerland and to Haifa in
the Holy Land to the Bahà'ì World
Centre where she was able to pray for her husband
Franco on the Sacred Thresholds of the Tombs of
The Founders.
In Ascoli and province, she holds conferences
in schools, talks on the radio, organizes monthly
cultural meetings with housewives and actively
collaborates with the Multiple Sclerosis Association.
She still lives with the profound conviction that
the true life is the spiritual one.
At a presentation in a school she said:
"My condition does not allow me to look daily
in the mirror, so I have no familiarity with my
physical appearance that changes daily. I only
look in the mirror when I go out because in the
lift there is a full length mirror and each time
I ask myself - Who is that person? - I don't recognize
myself because in my mind I see myself completely
different from reality. My illness has injured
me physically but my personality has not been
touched at all. When I close my eyes I see my
spiritual reality perhaps because I am losing
all the sensorial reality.
After I lost the use of my legs and now that of
my hands, these have been substituted by other
hands and legs, those of the persons who lovingly
and with great patience and sacrifice take care
of me, and to whom I have entrusted my body, I
am able to think about looking after my soul.
Each one of us must look after a soul, our own,
this being the true reason to our existence in
any condition in which we find ourselves, being
inspired by those great values of my Faith, the
Faith of the Glory, the Bahà'ì Faith,
that I know from when I was young and that has
guided me throughout my life".
Multiple
sclerosis is a frequent cause of acute or chronic
disability in persons of a young age.
Generally it shows up for the first time between
the ages of 15 to 50 with a highest effect in
young adults, affecting twice the number of
women than men. The specific causes are unknown,
even though it would appear that genetic factors
are involved in the predisposition of the development
of the illmess. This is due to the spontaneous
and acute birth of circumscribed inflammatory
focuses in which the immune system promotes
an attack ( auto-immune reaction) on a protein
(myelin) in the central nervous system. The
acute inflammation slows down the transmission
of the electric impulses along the nerve connections
preserving, however, the structure. During the
first years of illness the inflammation often
regresses spontaneously, with a subsequent improvement
or a complete remission of the symptoms. Due
to this tendency the more frequent clinical
form is that of "relapse and remission".
With a major number of relapses the remissions
are less complete due also to the structural
damage of the nerve tissue. In this way, some
patients may show a slow worsening even without
new relapses ( secondary chronic progressive
course). Only a minority of patients present
from the initial stages of the illness a slow
and continuous worsening (primary chronic progressive
course).
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