” ““I met John Paul II quite a lot of times, many times he received me in private audience, the first time I was seventeen”. This is told in an interview with “Nuovo cammino”, a diocesan magazine of Ales-Terralba (Or), by Simona Atzori, who danced in the opening ceremony for the Turin Para-Olympics and who is a member of an association of artists who paint with their mouth or feet, as they cannot use their upper limbs as a result of some accidents or diseases. Simona gave Pope Wojtyla many portraits: “The first one she recalls I gave him when he asked me to attend Mass in his little private chapel. Someone told me he kept it in his personal room”. During the 2000 Jubilee, she also danced in front of the Pope. “That of the Jubilee she states was a unique, unrepeatable opportunity, there’ll never be anything like that ever again. Closing the Jubilee with my dance, an indescribable harmony”. Above all, Simona cannot forget the meeting with the Pope on that occasion: “He tried to clasp my hands, which I didn’t have, so he apologised with a smile. His hug and my tears which fell on his robe, I couldn’t stop and I kissed him. He kissed me back, wiping my tears away”. Then, John Paul II said: “Simona, your mission is to be the messenger of Light”. “I won’t forget it comments Atzori -: the most extraordinary man, a father, entrusted me with a mission that I’m trying to carry on with my art, my smile, my life”.
