Abstract from " ...ONE NIGHT I WAS BORN " THE BIRTH ... The midwife cleared her throat and spoke quietly:- I am sorry to tell you, but there is little hope -. Giacomo and Marina glanced at each other desperately. Marina, exhausted by the long and difficult labour, seemed to have fainted. Only a double line of tears streaming down her cheeks marked her unrestrainable pain. Nearby grandmother was kneeling, but suddenly she sprang to her feet as pierced by a burning dart. Restlessly, as in a frenzy, she started to warm, with hot water and a woollen cloth, Daniele s lifeless little body. Little by little, like in a miracle, death, ready to seize this young life, draw back, and a weak whimper, choked, then free, clearer and clearer, flooded the poor room. Daniele was alive. It was the 22nd of September, 1949. [...]

BROKEN WINGS
A few months passed. Sitting near the fireplace, on his highchair, the boy would stare at everything and everybody with his big eyes: Daniele was a beautiful child, dark skinned, with jet-black curls. But at one year of age Daniele was still inert, without a sign of movement from his limbs. It was then that the truth, rejected until now, revealed itself in all its cruel reality. Daniele was a spastic child. Death, defeated by the bold despair of his grandmother, withdrawing, had left its marks.
[...]

OPEN DOORS
He had won as a man and as an artist. Another exhibition in Carpi and one in Bologna opened the doors of the Antoniano. He was a welcomed guest of Father Bernardo. At this exhibition Mrs. Rita Faryaville and Mr. Gerutti, Prefect of Bologna, were present. He bought two pictures to donate to an institute; he met Ermanno Valli, a famous painter, who later, kindly organised an important exhibition in Rome. February 1971 Daniele exhibited in Via S. Caterina da Siena, close to Piazza Minerva, at the Galleria d arte Pantheon. He had reached the top. He met Cecilia Borghese, Zavattini, Vincenzo Arezzo, Giancarlo Fusco, Guttuso and Manzù, most celebrated artists who deeply understood Daniele. Even Bill Pepper, the famous American biographer was moved by Daniele's work.

THE HOLY TRUTH
Then the unthinkable happened. That day (3 November 1975) Daniele was waiting for some friends. He was in a joyful mood. He felt like walking, searching, communicating this particular moment of his life with his loved friends. He was really impatient. When his friends arrived, being somehow late, he reproached them. But afterwards, the small storm over, he invited them for a meal. Around 9,30 they arrived at the restaurant and asked for a table. The waiter hesitated, mumbled something, and not even when they pointed to the empty tables did he ask them to sit down. First, with a bitter-sweet air, and then determinated, he told them they were not welcome. Evidently they were not partial to handicapped people. Daniele at first could not believe it, then realising it was true, felt a horrible pang in his heart, and almost falling, grasped himself to a table. They were refused... Refused! Something inconceivable, unheard of. But why... Now that he had thought he had risen again the endless course, full of prejudice and blind incomprehension; now that he thought he could believe in others. This, the cold truth and it was burning like a lash at his heart. [...]