 His father died in 1915 from pneumonia.Due to illness one leg was shorter than the other (fifteen centimetres) and so he had to wear special orthopedic shoes his entire life in order to compensate for the difference in leg height.In 1923 he was diagnosed with bone tuberculosis and his mother exhausted all available funds for treatment despite doctors giving up all hope on him recovering; he sent a letter to Filippo Rinaldi - the third superior of the Salesians of Don Bosco - and asked that he and his students intercede for him.