Ida Ferrari joins the Over 100 club and recounts a century of love, work and resilience

The Over 100 Club of the OIC Onlus Foundation is enriched by a new and extraordinary protagonist: Ida Ferrari, a guest of the Residenza Santa Chiara, has turned 100, officially entering the honorary members of the exclusive “Club Over 100” promoted by the Opera Immacolata Concezione Onlus Foundation to enhance the memory, dignity and human legacy of those who lived an entire century.

Born on June 1, 1925 in Piazza Mazzini in Padua, Ida is the daughter of Maria, known as Emilia, and Giovanni, who worked at the Sotto il Salone market. Her childhood took place in a popular, simple Padua, animated by the smell of bread and freshly printed newspapers, in an era in which neighborly ties were everything. Her life was marked by deep family love, sacrifice and industriousness. She married Giuseppe on November 28, 1942, in the midst of the war, inside the Baptistery. She was already expecting their firstborn, Galliano, and he would be only the first of three children: Lisetta and Paolo would follow. In the midst of the Second World War, with Giuseppe sent to the front, Ida faced difficult times alone: ​​she gritted her teeth, took little Galliano and took him to Caorle, to protect him from the bombings. She found refuge in the wisdom and affection of her grandmother Augusta, her true emotional pillar in a shocked Italy.

In the post-war period, Ida was a caring housewife, a hardworking woman and a tireless newsagent: for 25 years she ran a newsstand, becoming a familiar and reassuring face for the entire neighborhood. Always punctual, always attentive, with a kind word for each customer: for many Paduans she was "the newspaper lady", capable of transmitting serenity even in difficult news. Tailoring was also part of her life: she helped her aunt in the shop, another opportunity to put her hard-working hands and generous spirit at the service of the community. And then there is the very sweet memory of the period in which, as a young pregnant woman, she took care of her little brother Tony, born just when she was pregnant with her second child Lisetta: an intertwining of generations that continues to this day, in the living story of her memory. Unfortunately, life also had difficult moments in store for her: the loss of her daughter Lisetta is a deep wound. But Ida was able to transform pain into memory, facing mourning with dignity and continuing to transmit the love that has always kept her family together.

Since 2023, Ida has been a guest at the Residenza Santa Chiara of the OIC Onlus Foundation, where she has found a new home, made of care, listening and daily relationships. Much loved by the educational team and the other guests, she participates in the activities with discretion and intelligence, bringing her kind smile and her precious stories. In particular, in the Foundation, each centenarian is a living source of collective memory: through the narration of their lives, time becomes a gift, and the community is enriched with stories, values ​​and emotions that would otherwise be lost. Ida's words, gestures and experiences, like those of all long-lived people, weave a deep bond between past, present and future every day. With her entry, the OIC Onlus Foundation celebrates a new symbolic record: the Over 100 Club grows and increasingly becomes the beating heart of a community that makes longevity a value that is always the protagonist of new stories, collecting and spreading the stories of those who still have so much to give. And with Ida too, her 100 years become the time of a story that belongs to us.