The spiritual testament of Sammy Basso

By Sammy Basso   |   13 November 2024

In the month of holy souls, and as we continue our Rosary Crusade to embolden bishops to stand up courageously to proposed euthanasia legislation, Voice of the Family is pleased to present this commemoration of Sammy Basso (1995–2024) and his spiritual testament, translated from Italian.

On the evening of Saturday 5 October, Sammy Basso, a twenty-eight-year-old biologist (he would have been twenty-nine on 1 December), returned to the House of the Father after suddenly falling ill towards the end of a wedding party in Asolo (province of Treviso). A well-known face in Italy and beyond, Sammy was suffering from progeria, a rare genetic disease also known as premature ageing syndrome. His first signs appeared shortly after his birth, but the correct diagnosis only came at the age of two, in early 1998, at a time when very little was known about the disease in Italy. Thanks to his tenacity, the love he was surrounded by, and also the progress of scientific research in the last quarter of a century, Sammy has come to be the longest living progeria patient in the world.

Sammy himself has become a witness in so many ways, from his participation in television programmes to his writing and even his own studies, to the need to spread awareness of his disease, raise funds and thus facilitate a possible cure. To this end, his parents, together with some friends, founded the Associazione Italiana Progeria Sammy Basso in 2005. Since its foundation, Sammy and his family were able to network with other children and young people suffering from the disease and make contact with other associations in the United States and Europe, facilitating the exchange of experience, knowledge and data for the benefit of the families themselves and the doctors and researchers involved in trying to cure and alleviate the consequences of progeria as much as possible. An exchange that also proved useful in the treatment of other diseases.

Sammy had graduated with an honours degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Padua (2018), with a thesis aimed at demonstrating the possibility of treating progeria by means of genetic engineering. Three years later, he had specialised, at the same university, in molecular biology, writing his thesis on the relationship between progeria and inflammation. He said, “Rather than focusing on the limitations that progeria imposes, I prefer to think about the many things in which I can make a difference.”

Despite the hardships of daily life, Sammy displayed a joie de vivre rare even among those with enviable health. To his friends, both ordinary and famous (including Jovanotti), he took care to convey, both in word and even more so in deed, that life is beautiful and always worth living. In Sammy’s life, it is easy to discern a “recipe” that applies to every person, namely that the love received from loved ones and friends is the first great “medicine” that one can humanly give to a sick person or to anyone else, the first shelter from temptation and despair that a certain culture of death and related, unjust laws are gradually favouring in our post-Christian societies. Another fundamental aspect is gratitude. He told the magazine Gente Veneta in June 2020:

“Since I was a child, I have known the world’s greatest research centres and I have been to hospital several times. I have met many great doctors and researchers. I have to admit that I have seen the goodness of so many people: people often think the world is bad, and in some ways that is true, but I have experienced how many people set out to help us.”

A love received that Sammy passed on in spades. “He is the one who helps us, with his strength, determination and sense of humour. He never gives up, he always finds in himself and in his faith in God the energy to make it through,” his mother Laura explained in 2019 in an interview with Corriere della Sera. Even the passion Sammy put into his studies and the efforts he made to become a researcher were not directed solely to his own benefit, but found nourishment in his love for his fellow man and his desire to help others with similar conditions. He believed in a healthy combination of faith and science.

Born and raised by Catholic parents, Sammy was able to live his earthly life to the full, animated by the theological virtue of hope, with the ability to look up to what would await him in heaven, in eternity. Sammy said in February 2020, in an interview for Beati Voi, on Tv2000:

“Faith is the main part, the most intimate part of myself. I could say anything about myself, but if I did not say that I have faith, it is as if I said nothing. I am a believer and I am also often asked how one can believe despite such a rare genetic disease. For me, however, God is so great, that is, a reality so far beyond all reach, that really everything disappears, because I believe that God has given me a life, He has given me a family, He has given me friends, He has given me a world to be in, and these are all things that are much more important, much greater than those that an illness can take away.
…
“What I like about the Christian faith is precisely this: the fact that all of us believers should try to resemble God, bearing in mind, however, that He has made the task easy for us, because it is He who has wanted to resemble us so much, He has shared everything with us: from celebration to pain to death.”

Sammy was well aware that he was much more than his illness, in comparison to which, as seen, he did not feel sorry for himself and, on the contrary, was able to see all the good that came from accepting it. Not only was he able to live united to the Passion of Jesus, Whom he called “my Saviour”, but he also made himself an apostle of it. We hope he already shares in that glory that Christ Himself promised to those who take up their cross and follow Him.

Sammy Basso’s spiritual testament was read at his funeral by His Excellency Giuliano Brugnotto, Bishop of Vicenza.

Dearly beloved,

If you are reading this then I am no longer among the world of the living. At least not in the world of the living as we know it. I am writing this letter because if there is one thing that has always distressed me it is funerals. Not that there was anything wrong with funerals, saying goodbye to loved ones is one of the most human and poetic things ever. However, whenever I thought about what my funeral would be like, there were always two things I couldn’t stand: not being able to be there and have the final say, and not being able to console my loved ones, as well as not being able to attend, but that’s another matter …

And so, here I have decided to write my last words, and I thank whomever is reading them. I don’t want to leave you with anything other than what I experienced, and since this is the last time I have a chance to say my piece, I will only say the essentials without superfluous things or anything else …

I want you to know first of all that I have lived my life happily, without exception, and I have lived it as a simple man, with moments of joy and difficulty, with the desire to do good, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing miserably. Ever since I was a child, as you well know, progeria has profoundly marked my life; although it was only a very small part of who I am, I cannot deny that it has greatly influenced my daily life and, not least, my choices. I do not know why and how I will leave this world, surely many will say that I have lost my battle against the disease. Don’t listen! There was never any battle to fight, there was only a life to embrace as it was, with its difficulties, but still splendid, still fantastic, neither reward nor condemnation, simply a gift given to me by God.
…
I realise now, as I write this letter, imagining what my last moment on earth will be like, that it is the stupidest wish one could have. Personal glory, greatness, fame, are but a passing thing. The love that is created in life, on the other hand, is eternal, for God alone is eternal, and love comes to us from God. If there is one thing I have never regretted, it is that I have loved so many people in my life, and so much. And yet too little. Those who know me well know that I am not the type who likes to give advice, but this is my last chance … so please my friends, love those around you, do not forget that our fellow travellers are never the means but the end. The world is good if we know where to look!

In many things, as I have already told you, I was wrong! For much of my life I thought that there were no totally positive or totally negative events, that it was up to us to see the good sides or the bad sides. Of course, that is a good philosophy of life, but it is not everything! An event can be negative and be totally negative! What is up to us is not in finding something positive in it, but rather in acting on the right path, enduring, and, for the sake of others, transforming a negative event into a positive one. It is not in finding positives but rather in creating them, and this is, in my opinion, the most important faculty given to us by God, the faculty that most of all makes us human.

I want you to know that I love you all, and that it has been a pleasure to walk the road of my life by your side. I will not tell you not to be sad, but do not be too sad. As with every death, there will be someone among my loved ones who will cry for me, someone who will be in disbelief, someone who, perhaps without knowing why, will feel like going out with friends, being together, laughing and joking, as if nothing had happened. I want to be with you in this, and let you know that it is normal. For those who will cry, know that it is normal to be sad. For those who want to celebrate, know that it is normal to celebrate. Cry and celebrate: do so in my honour.

If you wish to remember me instead, do not waste too much time on various rituals, pray, of course, but also take some glasses, toast to my health and yours, and be merry. I have always loved being in company, and so this is how I would like to be remembered.

It will probably take time, though, and if I really want to console you and depart from this world so that you don’t feel bad, I cannot simply tell you that time will heal every wound, not least because it won’t, so I want to speak frankly to you about the step that I have already taken and that everyone must sooner or later take: death.

Even saying the word sometimes makes one shiver. Yet it is a natural thing, the most natural thing in the world. If we want to use a paradox, death is the most natural thing in life. And yet it scares us! This is normal; there is nothing wrong with it; even Jesus was afraid.

It is the fear of the unknown, because we cannot say that we have experienced it in the past. However, we think of death in a positive way: if it were not there, we would probably not conclude anything in our lives, because there is always tomorrow. Death, on the other hand, lets us know that there is not always tomorrow, that if we want to do something, the right time is “now”!

For a Christian, however, death is also something else! Since Jesus died on the cross, as a sacrifice for all our sins, death is the only way to truly live, it is the only way to finally return to the Father’s house, it is the only way to finally see His Face.

And as a Christian I faced death. I did not want to die, I was not ready to die, but I was prepared.

The only thing that makes me melancholy is not being able to be there to see the world change and move on. For the rest, however, I hope I was able, in my last moment, to see death as St Francis, whose words have accompanied me all my life, saw it. I hope I too have been able to welcome death as “Sister Death”, from whom no living person can escape.

If in life I was worthy, if I carried my cross as I was asked to do, I am now with the Creator. I am now with my God, with the God of my fathers, in his indestructible House.

He, our God, the one true God, is the first cause and end of all things. In the face of death nothing makes sense but him. Therefore, although there is no need to say it, for He knows everything, just as I have thanked you I also want to thank Him. I owe my whole life to God: every good thing. Faith has accompanied me and I would not be what I am without my faith. He changed my life, He picked it up, He made something extraordinary out of it, and He did it in the simplicity of my everyday life.

Never grow weary, my brethren, of serving God and behaving according to His commandments, for nothing makes sense without Him and because our every action will be judged and will decide who will live on forever and who will have to die. I have certainly not been the best of Christians, indeed I have certainly been a sinner, but that matters little now: what matters is that I have tried my best and would do it all again.

Never grow weary, my brethren, of carrying the cross that God has assigned to each one, and do not be afraid to be helped in carrying it, as Jesus was helped by Joseph of Arimathea. And never renounce a full and confidential relationship with God, willingly accept His Will, for it is our duty, but do not be passive either, and make your voice heard loudly, make your will known to God, just as Jacob did, who for having proved himself strong was called Israel: “He who struggles with God”.

Surely, God … Who in the person of Jesus experienced every human weakness, and Who in the Holy Spirit always lives in us who are His Temple, will appreciate your efforts and keep them in His Heart.

Now I leave you. As I have told you, I do not like funerals when they become too long, and I was not brief. Know that I could never imagine my life without you, and if given the choice, I would still choose to live alongside you. I am happy that tomorrow the sun will rise again …

My family, my brothers and my love, I am close to you, and if I may, I will watch over you,

I love you.

Sammy

It is not too late to Join Voice of the Family’s Rosary Crusade by offering your daily Rosary for the double intention of defeating the UK euthanasia bill which has its second reading on Friday 29 November, and to embolden Catholic bishops to uncompromisingly witness against this hellish legislation.