HE DEDICATED HIS LIFE AND A NOVEL TO HER: A touching story about the Italian who adopted a girl in Sarajevo in ’92!

Franco Di Mare, a journalist and editor of the Italian state television RAI Uno, and a war correspondent from Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, saw a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in an orphanage in the ruins and adopted her immediately after.

Franco di Mare, a Rai News journalist who, according to media reports, was always calm and reserved at work, never hid the joy, enthusiasm, and love that Stella brought into his life.

Stella is about 35 years old today, and she graduated with a degree in economics. Almost nothing is known about the Bosnian girl, the adopted daughter of the Italian journalist Franco di Mare. Stella was always under the protection of her parents, who kept her away from the media.

Franco di Mare, a Rai News journalist, never hid the joy, enthusiasm, and love that Stella brought into his life.

He found Stella in an orphanage in Sarajevo

The first encounter between the journalist and little Stella, who was still in diapers, took place in 1992 in Sarajevo.

Di Mare was reporting on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time, writes Rai news.

„I was in Sarajevo and a bomb fell on the orphanage. I saw the eyes of a little girl and we immediately understood each other,“ the journalist said earlier. This encounter ended with a happy story – the journalist adopted the girl and a fatherly love was born that lasted until the last moments of his life. After the first meeting, Di Mare, who was married to Alessandra at the time, decided to save the girl from the war and managed to adopt her with the help of the Red Cross.

„I was 35 years old and Stella saved me at a certain point in my life. Stella made me know faith and say that God exists,“ the journalist said about her.

Although the marriage between the journalist and Alessandra ended some time ago, they continued to care for their daughter.

The touching story of Stella and the meeting with the man who became her father, Franco di Mare described in the book „Don’t ask why“. Rai news journalist Franco Di Mare (68) died on May 17, 2024, and it was an extremely sad moment for Stella.

The journalist had been suffering from mesothelioma for several years, according to Italian media reports, reports „Stil“.

I am a Sarajevan

All right, I do not speak that language. And, certainly, I do not forget that I was born in Naples and that I do not have two passports, nor dual citizenship. Nevertheless, my roots are in the waters of Posillipo and Miljacka, I became a man on the streets of Mergellina and in the alleyways that climb up Bjelave, my emotional maturation celebrated its rites in the tree-lined avenues of the city park along the street of Caracciolo and among the craft streets of Baščaršija.

This is how he began his story in his book „Do not ask why“, which he dedicated to the girl he adopted in a war hospital in Sarajevo that same year. Her parents left her, and Franco could not separate from her. She is about 35 years old today and her name is Stella. About 15 years ago, he promoted the book „Do not ask why“, which talks about that event.

–The main theme of my book is will, the power of love. When I talk about love, I do not only mean the romantic kind of love, like the one that exists between a man and a woman, but also that mysterious connection between a person and his country (homeland), his family, and his life story. I spent months in Sarajevo during the war. I was impressed precisely by that love of the Sarajevans, who were so close to each other at the time, for their city, homeland, friends, and loved ones.

I have never in my life experienced such a lesson in humanity, which happened in one place and at one time. The plot of the novel is the story of an Italian journalist who comes to Sarajevo in July 1992, at the very beginning of the war.

He divorced a few years before coming to Sarajevo and, because of everything that was happening to him, he becomes somewhat cynical. He no longer believes in love. But, he will soon change his mind, the day he meets a little girl in an orphanage.

Italians asked him why he adopted a child from Sarajevo

–Good question! But, I am afraid I do not have a precise answer. I could give you a million answers, but not all those answers together would be enough to explain the essence of everything. There is no answer in love, I suppose. In the end, who could really explain to us why you fell in love with someone. This is a child who is not guilty of anything.

When I was describing the moment in the book when my daughter and I chose each other, the editor asked me to add more details to that description. But, I could not. I wrote exactly what I felt at that moment. I said that there is no one in the world who could explain the reason why we choose each other. Do not ask me for the reason, I told her. She replied with a smile and the words: „I think we have the title of the novel”, writes „Azra“.