Today, Rod Gorton is no longer with us, but in this testimony of several years ago, he and Mazia, his wife, talk about their relationship with Renata.
Mazia and Rod Gorton came to live in Loppiano in 1972. She is Austrian and he was Californian, they had six children and many grandchildren. “I often talked to Renata,” says Mazia. “She had a special art in listening: she always put the other in first place. I felt fully welcomed, understood, and loved. I feel that she reconstructed me humanly, and without hesitation, I can say that she was like my mother, even more so after my mother’s death”.
“In 1972 – Rod continued – we came to live in Loppiano. We were the first international family in the little city. We immediately asked ourselves if we could be witnesses of unity in our own family: I, an American and Mazia from Austria, in an Italian society”. Mazia then tells of the difficult moments lived in their marriage: “I no longer understood my husband; his way of being and thinking put me in crisis, but by then we had four small children. One night I couldn’t take it anymore and I ran to Renata. I threw my biggest doubt at her telling her I was wrong to marry Rod! As always, she welcomed me and took my suffering upon herself, then, with an unshakeable certainty, she told me that Rod was the right person for me, beyond our differences. That night I left her house with a new strength, sure that Rod and I were made for each other!”.
