Jane, the friendly Singapore cyclone by Antonio Zaccheo

I met Jane through a mutual friend in Turin who for many years had done a lot of business in Singapore. The year was 1984.
Jane was a lively young woman with music in her blood and the way she looked the first time I saw her has always been etched in my mind. She was driving around in a roaring Porsche convertible, going from one restaurant and disco to another.
Jane was, and still is, a force of nature. She was born with an infinite charge of enthusiasm that she manages to transmit to anyone who is at her side, totally overwhelming them.
We've remained friends through all these years and in the family she's considered one of us.
Memorable are the Chinese dinners she has cooked up for us so we could taste magnificent dishes made from all the ingredients she had brought with her on the plane-all the way from Singapore.
For Jane friendship is sacred, and perhaps she's gotten this idea from her excellent father whom I had the fortune to meet many years ago, an old-style businessman, solemn yet extremely affable.
Thanks to Jane I've had innumerable unforgettable experiences, from pork-based breakfasts at 7 a.m. to all types of Indian curries to discotheques and encounters with artists of all sorts and even multimillionaire customers of her company.
Few times in my life have I had as much fun as I have experienced with her, laughing for days on end...
On the other hand, no one can resist her joyful, contagious laughter and I was never bored in her company, I have to admit it, even when we had to talk business.
I've always had this kind of relationship with her.
But Jane is also something more. She is a person who, embracing Christianity years ago, found the time and the resources for charitable work, for helping others, using the little leisure time she can find.
That is my friend Jane.
But in thinking about her I find that I must describe her first as an important businesswoman.
It's precisely thanks to her, to her contacts, that our consortium was able to take its first steps in Singapore, setting up a dealership that later became a real foreign office where, since last June, our man Giovanni Oliva has been working, watching over and developing the Consorzio Grandi Vini market throughout the Asian region.
Could we have done all this if it had not been for Jane? Perhaps, but we wouldn't have had as much fun and we certainly would have missed out on such a valuable, incredibly generous and affectionate friend.

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