“Every person’s life is enriched by the opportunity to care for someone; if you have no one to care for, you are lonelier and sadder. A world without care is, historically and socially, a worse, poorer, less humane world: this is the great lesson taught by illness and pain, which force you to see what you are made of; you need care, and by caring for others you are happier, even when it takes effort.”

It begins with an account of experience gained in the field, over forty years of work in the management of care and hospitality services. Facts, circumstances and encounters that foreshadow an understanding of reality capable of discerning the meaning of events and guiding action. All this becomes an invitation to recognise the centrality of relationships, companionship and the meaning of life in care, without reducing suffering to a mere technical problem but addressing it as a mystery that challenges reason, faith and personal and social responsibility.
This book, notes Giorgio Vittadini, ‘does not shy away from sensitive issues such as euthanasia, excessive medical treatment and proportionate care, but always approaches them from the perspective of situations experienced as problems arising from the relationships between patients, family members and carers’.