Lucia Servadio Bedarida was born into a Jewish family on July 17 1900 in Ancona. In 1922 she graduates in Surgery and Obstetrics at the University of Rome becoming the youngest woman doctor in Italy. After marrying Doctor Nino Vittorio Bedarida in 1923, she works with him side by side at the hospital, first in Turin and then in Vasto. In 1939 she is forced to flee Italy because of the promulgation of the antisemitic racial laws, which were to be applied to her whole family. «Be aware that you are being followed and they want to get you » people would say to us. After numerous and unsuccessful attempts to go abroad, she moves to Tangier, an international area in Morocco that harbours the Jews who flee Europe and allows them to practise their profession. In Tangier, Lucia works as a doctor for more than forty years and assists hundreds of women in giving birth to their babies. “Women come to me on the back of a mule” says Lucia who, being a woman doctor, enjoys the approval of the Moroccan mentality in practising her profession. In Morocco Lucia spends most of her life. The break with Italy is drastic, communication is impossible. After a few years, heartbreaking news arrives: her mother and grandmother were deported and killed at Auschwitz. Even through these terrible moments, Lucia never loses her faith and keeps up with her mission as a doctor. I must continue to work as a doctor. Too many people still need me here Only at 81 does she resolve to hang up her coat for good and reunite with her daughters, who had been sent to the States at a young age to continue their studies and start a career. She moves to Cornwall on Hudson, a small village one hour from New York City. Olivia Fincato and Renato D’Agostin meet up with her in her house on the Hudson river banks in March 2006. Lucia welcomes them with enthusiasm and forges with them a bond of deep trust right away. A month after the meeting Lucia Servadio Bedarida dies. «Experiencing Lucia was an honor, even if for just one day. Lucia leaves a mark on our lives and teaches us that, after all, life can be beautiful and full of surprises at any age, even at one-hundred-and-six».
