“I would have died if it hadn’t been for your grandfather”

Reggio Emilia, 9 November 2024 – “I wouldn’t be here today if your grandfather hadn’t been here”. His eyes shine Luciano Ligabue: emotion, joy, gratitude. A mix of emotions stronger than the roar of San Siro when the notes of his ‘Screaming against the sky’ start.

The artist met Gianluca Iarussigrandson of Bruno Tondellithe doctor who 63 years ago he saved his life.

Ligabue with Gianluca Iarussi and his family: Maria Olga, Enrico Cesare and Guglielmo

The ‘Liga’ was a year and a half old in 1961 e he didn’t stop crying. His mother Rina no longer knew what to do and took him to the pharmacy. There was the first ‘sliding door’ of the rocker’s fabulous story: Tondelli, then 54 years old, was on site, who immediately understood that it was peritonitis and had little Luciano rushed to the hospital. That he was saved by a hair’s breadth. “Don’t worry, life will take care of it, they told me so”, says one of the verses of one of his songs. Never, like that day, did the coincidences of life really think about solving everything, and giving the future singer a new life, full of emotions and vibrations transmitted to the sound of music. The episode is reported in the autobiography ‘A story’, but the name of the savior was not there. Tondelli’s family managed to discover that their Bruno was that doctorwho died at the age of 94 in 2001 after having been Correggio‘s medical doctor for over 40 years.

He told us this crossroads of destinies Gianluca Iarussi, nephew of Bruno Tondelli.

How did the meeting with Ligabue go?

“I live in Cremona, and here, last Wednesday, was the stage of the tour in the theaters. I got in touch with his staff and we managed to organize a meeting a couple of hours before the concert, with whom I am I went with my family: we are all big fans of his, including my two children.”

Lots of emotions.

“A very beautiful moment. I explained to Ligabue that the doctor who saved him, mentioned in his autobiography, was my grandfather Bruno Tondelli”.

What did you say to each other?

“There was an exchange. I had with me a book on the Correggio families with photos and stories, including that of the Ligabue and the Tondelli. I gave it to him because he didn’t know of their existence. He autographed it for me his book right on the page where he talks about the episode concerning his grandfather”.

How did things go that day?

“Ligabue explains it in detail: he was one and a half years old, he was crying and coughing. His mother Rina took him to the pharmacy and as luck would have it, a doctor, my grandfather Bruno, passed by. She examined him and immediately understood the seriousness, immediately bringing little Luciano and his mother at the San Sebastiano hospital. There he was operated on urgently, with his grandfather staying at Rina’s side the whole time. In the end everything went well, and she dissolved into a big one hug with grandfather and a nurse”.

Without that meeting… there would be no Ligabue.

“Yes, and Liga often mentions it. His mother told him “This scar will grow with you and will always remind you that you will make it”. Almost a sign of destiny. In the concert, before some songs, ‘Liga’ reads passages of his book, for example before the passage “The day of pain that one has”: those lines are dear to him”.

A curiosity: but how did you know for sure that that doctor was your grandfather?

“My cousin Andrea (Zambrano, journalist from Correggio, ed.) and I, reading that passage, made a reflection: in those years there weren’t many doctors… A few months ago, under the arcades of the town, my aunt, the mother of Andrea, met Rina and asked her who the doctor who had the providential intuition was. She replied Bruno Tondelli”.

And the concert in Cremona gave you the opportunity to let him know.

“Exactly. For Correggio’s memory and history, we believe it is a beautiful episode. His grandfather, among other things, was a doctor and soldier in the Second World War. He was also director of a field hospital on the Russian front, and did as a volunteer in Africa: in short, many stories.”

And, in its own way, it also allowed us to listen to “Certe Notti”, among others.

“True, Ligabue told me: without your grandfather I wouldn’t be here today.”