What first stood out about Nonno Sisto when you met him was how calm, kind, diplomatic and dignified he was. He spoke with unusual tact and wisdom and when there was a problem or he needed something he knew how to express himself real well.
My paternal grandfather was quite skilled at every enterprise he undertook: Music, hunting, painting, traveling and driving fast cars.
At one time he gave me some official Italian documents that showed how in the very early 1900s he was one of the first persons in Italy to obtain a passport and also a driving license. In 1913 he is listed as a Roman car dealer in the process of setting up a car dealership in Florence and Naples with the Michigan Motor Car Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Below is an excerpt from one of several articles written about my grandfather in 1913 after he had visited the Michigan Motor Car Company:
For no fault of my Dad’s, Sisto Ripamonti remained separated from Dad for many years, but then all of a sudden during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s they were reunited, although maybe not as completely or righteously as it should have been, yet still there was a mutual respect and they began spending time together.
Sisto would come up to our family mansion and farm, called Torregrossa, near Spoleto in Umbria, and keep Dad company while some of us were already living in the United States.
At Torregrossa, my grandfather painted the ancient watch tower and Benedictine monastery, the Renaissance chapel and the verdant trees and landscapes that surrounded him. He really liked doing that. It was the perfect place and setting for him to exercise his artistic talents.
Many of the naturalistic works that we have today relate to this period of his life. They were some of the last painting he produced, the previous ones having been sold or given to others. He signed his paintings by writing beri in the right side of the front of the canvas.
Nonno Sisto also inspired and taught my second degree cousin, Davide Bornigia, how to bird hunt with a shotgun. Davide developed a real passion for hunting because of grandfather.
Sisto drove a car until he was 88 years old and would take his brother-in-law, Renato Bornigia on joy rides. At one point, after driving off the road and hitting a tree, where the two of them could have been seriously hurt, after the body shop had made some major repairs, we decided to remove the car from his possession. He then attempted to justify the accident by saying that, the sycamore tree had leaned too far into the road and hit him!
He later lived with us in our Rome apartment and I took care of him personally for some time giving him his injections, pills and other medications as well as helping him shower and eat.
One day my brother and I went to see him in while he was staying at Zio Renato’s lakeside villa north of Rome. After I had shared with him how our sins separate us from God but how the Lord offers us forgiveness through the death of his son, and he asked to receive Christ into his heart.
His words at that time were, I feel much better now.