«Giovanna had a strong personality, witty, engaging, with a joke always ready and available to help». Daniele Depaoli, mayor of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, thus remembers Giovanna Tavernaro in Turra, who passed away on Friday afternoon in the oncology department of the San Lorenzo hospital in Borgo Valsugana.
A life in volunteering
The Giovanna who helps everyone and has dedicated a life, like her husband Gianni Turra (commander for almost twenty years) to the Primiero firefighters. Civil protection association and volunteer organization which even before politics (the merger into a single municipality took place on 1 January 2016) had sensed the need to network, with a single body which anticipated the merger of the 4 municipalities of Fiera, Tonadico, Transacqua and Siror. But the story of Giovanna Tavernaro deserves to be remembered because she, born in 1960, originally from San Martino di Castrozza but moved to Tonadico for love (and marriage), joined the local fire brigade in 1981. «In 2021 – recalls the Mayor Depaoli – we rewarded Giovanna for her 40 years of membership in the body.”
Giovanna Tavernaro had been ill for some years and fought strenuously alongside her husband, Gianni Turra, commander of the Primiero fire brigade from 2000 to 2018, and her daughter Daiana.
Luxottica employee
Giovanna worked all her life at Luxottica in Agordo: she commuted to the Belluno plant every day and in the moments when the illness had given her a little respite she did everything she could to get back to work.
Firefighter colleagues have paid homage to her in recent hours, also via social media, listing Primiero’s corps page in mourning and sending messages that recall her cheerfulness, dedication and passion for her volunteer commitment. «In the 1980s, the first female group of volunteer firefighters in Trentino was born in Primiero» recalls the mayor, Daniele Depaoli. «And the news spread around Italy: Giovanna and her first colleagues were interviewed by state TV and were guests on RAI’s national broadcasts».
Her husband Gianni Turra is still active in the Primiero volunteer fire station and in the training of new young recruits.
In the memory of his smile
A party for the students was planned for this weekend, with an “open house” in the barracks, but the will of the firefighters, Giovanna’s former colleagues, was not to cancel the event but to remember their unforgettable friend and colleague. celebrating, giving smiles and opening the doors to those interested in wearing the uniform of an effective volunteer firefighter, serving their community. To renew that commitment which for Giovanna Tavernaro was a natural spirit of service and a trait of her own character: «Giovanna and Gianni have always lived in symbiosis with the barracks and with the world of firefighters» comments Mayor Depaoli. Giovanna also leaves behind her elderly mother, Graziella, and a large group of brothers and sisters, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews. The funeral will be celebrated tomorrow in the parish church of Tonadico at 2.30 pm. Giovanna Tavernaro’s body will already be present an hour before for a final farewell.
