Earlier, in the first years of my work, I had less contact with him, but now, as the personal driver of the prefect, I saw the Pope every time an audience or solemn mass. When I was waiting for His Excellency and the Holy Father was also leaving, he would always greet each of us – members of the bodyguards -, exchange a few words before he drove away in his car, and then we started as well, and soon we saw each other again at the Courtyard of Saint Damasius. There, the Prefect got off to go to the prefecture office in the Apostolic Palace, and this is also where John Paul II got off to return to his apartment on foot through the palace. He would come up to me once more, he would ask me about my family. This happened every day, and often even two or three times in one day. Our contact became more and more intimate.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It Happened in the Vatican”
Wydawnictwo Znak. Krakow 2020
Pages: 231 – 232
