With Father Dziwisz and Father Mietek at the end of the Pope’s life, I was already connected by a real intimacy resulting from frequent service in the apartment. They often called me upstairs, especially in this last, most difficult period, to adapt even his bed in the bedroom to the needs of the Holy Father. He had always used a very simple bed, which was already in the apartment when he was elected, before him Paul VI used it, and before that John XXIII! We had to lift the whole base a little so that the Pope would not lie too flat, because then it was more difficult for him to breathe. Sister Tobiana often called me, worried about the health of John Paul II, scared, and I helped as much as I could. Everyone who worked in the apartment was a family. Father Mietek was a great support: young, strong, energetic, he helped to the end to raise the Pope, support him, and he also ignited a lot of good energy and optimism around him.
I had the opportunity to accompany the Pope in secret, waiting somewhere in the back, in the back room, during all the ceremonies in which he participated, actually until the very end. He really wanted to continue to be with people, even when he was at the end of his strength, when he showed up in the window on the memorable Easter Sunday of 2005 and was unable to say a word.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Pages: 207 – 208
