Italian's appeal in classified ads tugs heartstrings across nation
Updated: 11:18 a.m. ET Aug. 30, 2004
MILAN, Italy - “Elderly retired school teacher seeks family willing to adopt grandfather. Will pay.”
Lonely Giorgio Angelozzi, 79, published his appeal in the classified pages of daily Corriere della Sera over the weekend, tugging on heart strings across family-loving Italy.
The classics teacher has lived alone outside Rome with seven cats since his wife died in 1992 but on Monday he had received dozens of replies from across the country.
“So many families want to adopt me as their grandfather,” said Angelozzi who promised 500 euros (around $604) a month to the family who took him in. “So many families answered my appeal and want me to teach their children and their grandchildren about Horace and Catullus.”
Among those who responded -- from southern Catanzaro to northern Milan -- was much-loved Roman popular music singer Antonello Venditti, one of Angelozzi’s former students.
“I was not expecting so much warmth, so much interest in my story,” Angelozzi told Corriere on Monday. “But remember that my problem is one that affects so many elderly people in Italy.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5867106/
I'd like to think that the response was due to the "warmth" of mankind but I'm far to cynical to believe that. I think the 500 euros may have had a lot more to do with all the "love" going around.
Thanks to reiner for this one!