170 The adopted Grandfather

CNN carried a real tear jerker today--even warned the viewers ahead of time. An 80 year old widower in Italy put himself up for adoption as a grandfather!

"Giorgio Angelozzi, 80, has lived alone outside Rome with seven cats since his wife died in 1992, but he took the unprecedented step of putting himself up for adoption last month via the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Not satisfied with just running the advertisement, Italy's main daily ran a front-page story about Angelozzi's plight.

Inundated with offers from families across Italy and as far away as New Zealand, Brazil and the United States, the retired schoolteacher has decided to go to live with Elio and Marlena Riva and their two teenage children in Bergamo, northern Italy." CNN story here.

The reporter said Mr. Angelozzi had one child who lived in another country. Marlena is Polish and her husband Italian. She was already calling Giorgio, Papa and the children were calling him Grandpa, as the video panned his home as he packed to go live with them. He is giving the cats away. It really was a beautiful story--and did indeed cause a few tears.