By Keze Kozeta Zylo
– His brother, Dr. Jani Dilo, former exponent of the “National Front”, was sentenced to death by the communist regime, so Dr. Oresti did not return to Albania for 50 consecutive years –
Memorie.al / For his exceptional skills in medicine, he was appointed Director General of the Public Hospitals in New York. After many years of experience, he opened his own private clinic in Alpha New Jersey, where he worked for 30 years as a doctor in that area. A charity museum, raised in the hearts of people, especially American patients, stands like a foot of the mountain beyond Albania, on the edge of the Adriatic in New York and New Jersey. Although the museum does not have a building, there are thousands of ciceron patients, who speak from the heart about the Albanian doctor from Sheperi i Zagoria, who healed his patients, with a soul as white as the snow of Çajup and the profession of a doctor.
He was a boy with beautiful dreams, when he left the big door of Dilej, from Albania, where violence reigned, and managed to have an extraordinary success and create a nest like a Michelangelo sculpture, in the heart of the world in America. Unfortunately, millions of Albanians have left their homeland at different times, such as during communism and after the 90s, to find a better life outside the borders, but it should be noted that under the Enverist dictatorial system, they were stopped with law to return to their homeland, the “Doves of Peace”, and one of them was Dr. Oreste E. Dilo.
Born in 1915, in the picturesque Sheper, in the birthplace of Çajupi, the great renaissance writer, who was fascinated by writing his poems, where I must add that Andon Zako Çajupi was a tribe with Dilot. At the wedding of the father of Dr. To Dilo, the linguist and enlightened man of the nation, Ilia Dilo Shperit, (“Honour of the Nation”, prize after the fall of communism), Xenofon Dilo, his grandson, will write that; Çajupi sang the song for Sava, the grandmother of Dr. Dilos, the sister of Aristidh Ruci, the delegate of Tepelena, the signatory of Independence, (“Honour of the Nation”), as: “Come out, come out, or they won’t let you, sos je yll, sos je moon”…!
Dr. Dilo is one of the ten children of Ilia Dilo Sheperi and Sava Ruci. Although their father was a clerk and provided their income, their mother, when they were small, took them to the mountains to collect grass in Dhëmbel and educated them with work. As children, they closely enjoyed nature and the trees around them, like wild plums, which they picked and ate with bread. When he came to Tirana, in the 90s, he asked his grandchildren, that; was that plum still in Dëmbel?
He received his early education from his brother, Qirjakoja, who was a teacher from the age of 15. Meanwhile, Pano Xhamballo, fallen for his homeland (Martyr of the National Liberation War), who had the great help of Prof. Ilia Dilo Sheperit, played a valuable role in the intellectual formation of his grandson Dr. Orestes. As Eduard Dilo, the eldest of the Dilej family, tells us, when he came to his homeland after 50 years, he told his nephews that he and Panon were like two brothers. Prof. Diloja was given lessons in foreign languages to improve his Italian and French.
After primary school in Sheper, he continued to Gjirokastra High School and Korça High School (following his father, Ilia Dilo Sheperi, wherever he was transferred), as well as to the Shkodra Gymnasium and the Tirana Gymnasium. When Ilia Dilo Sheperi retired, his brother Dr. Jani Dilo. All the universities that Ilia Dilo Sheperi’s children graduated from were done with the help of each other, not with scholarships from the state of that time.
The homeland had sentenced his family to prison and death. The Albanian doctor, the “Dove of Peace”, dreamed endlessly to serve his nation, but the murderers did not know medicine, they only knew the grain of lead, the bullet in the forehead, the poor would not let him return. In the newspaper “Bashkimi”, where many names of patriots who fled and were sentenced to death by the communist regime were published, among them, he saw the name of his brother, Dr. Jani Dilo, a former exponent of the ‘National Front’ sentenced to death, did not return to Albania for 50 consecutive years.
The other brother who remained in Albania, Margariti, had graduated from Fultz’s school and the university for mathematics, in Athens, but he served his sentence as a political prisoner, in the fortress of Gjirokastra and in the marsh of Maliqi. The other brother, Koço I. Dilo, also tried Spaçi prison. Discreeted before the people of Zagoria, the other uncle, veterinary doctor, Mihali, who is declared “enemy of the people”, is later killed and massacred by gouging out his eyes and cutting off his head, at the threshold of the house of Kaliopi’s mother, the wife of doctor Mihali.
Like many other political immigrants, who did not give a hand to their parents, Dr. Oresti had the same fate. Here’s how he wrote about his mother, when she closed her eyes forever: “Dear Dede, let’s call you like you looked for us and you didn’t find us. You closed your beautiful eyes, with the same smile that used to wait for us. You slowly went away, like the setting sun, and left us in the dark. We will return and not find you, dear Dede, our good Dede! Your son, Orestes”.
The ordeal of Christ-like sufferings for the family of Ilia Dilo Sheperi had torn the heart of their doctor, son and brother. Even though he himself was in this very precious profession, even though he was healing hundreds of American patients, he could not heal his brother, Margarit, who was dying from the tortures of the barbarians of the Sheti Security. They didn’t let him be near him. This is how he wrote a letter, on August 15, 1965, and asked for help from his colleague, Dr. To Theodhos, for the brother who was languishing on his deathbed:
“Dear Dr. Theodhos, I received your explanatory and very informative letter these days. about the condition of my brother Margariti and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. for everything you are doing for him. Regarding your diagnosis “…….” and from the description of the condition that my brother gives me, there is a possibility that he suffers from…! Of course, the best of all, would be my brother’s going abroad, directing him to an external institute, with which Albania has relations.
My brother gave us the good opportunity to get to know each other through letters, however I was aware that you are the doctor of my relatives there. I tell you honestly, that I greatly appreciate your care and services for them and I am indebted to you for life. I take the opportunity to assure you that I am always at your disposal, for anything you would need, to send this way, for yourself or your family. With friendly regards, Yours truly, Oreste”.
In New York, he had his brother, Dr. Jani Dilon, an outstanding intellectual figure who gave so much to the nation. Reading the biographies of the entire Dilo family, of these boys who gave light to Albania, I feel how the barbarians wanted to exterminate them, exterminate them, extinguish the light. I feel that if I had the financial power, which unfortunately extortionists and criminals have, I would certainly set up a Museum for this family, where I would divide into different pavilions, their entire history full of culture, but also extremely painful. , I would especially expose the means of torture such as prison bars, torture.
A pavilion would be quite special, where I would write: “Children under the age of 18 are prohibited from entering: after violent scenes are given, where from the mouth of a prisoner, only blood, blood, blood, and it may happen that, you get a blood disease, you lose consciousness. Finally, only with these museums, Albanians can understand and never allow the macabre history to be repeated, for the most vocal Albanian intellectuals.
I would set up another museum in New York, for all the enlightened intellectuals of the Diaspora, which unfortunately the mother country and culture continue to ignore. Dr. Jani Dilo was a great patriot. According to the interview I conducted with Eduard Dilon, he says that in the house of Dr. Jani Dilos, in Manhattan, show his contemporaries, (such as Motrat Juka, Ing. Agim Karagjozi, Prof. Sami Repishti, Dr. Nihat Bakalli, Dr. Fuat Myftia, Idriz Lamaj, Prof. Luan Gashi, Sefer Mujo Luarasi, Kadri Bajrami , etc.), when in the 80s, demonstrations began in Kosovo and the streets of Pristina became bloody, the first meetings were held there.
Dr. Jani Dilo, addressed the red government of Tirana, saying: “In Albania, apart from imprisonments, exiles and punishments, with or without trial, the government also robs and seizes all the relics kept by family members, as a sacred thing from their ancestors “. Dr. Oresti experienced, under indescribable pain, the departure from the country and the detention they did to him, but at the same time the premature flight of his only brother, who he had in America. Here is the condolence letter of Dr. Oresti, addressed to the family, for Dr. Jani Dilon, another erudite intellectual:
“Dear Ifi, Hriso, Male, Koço, Henrik and Edi. I was left alone miserable and unconsoled; My Janaq, our Janaq, everyone’s Janaq, dear, wise, good, holy, left us. Wherever I turn, wherever I go, I find no rest, no escape. We worked all our lives, we did what we didn’t do, we threw ourselves from all sides and when the time came to enjoy and use the sweat of so much time, you my Janaq, unlucky Janaq, left: leaving behind the son, brothers, sisters, grandchildren and nieces.
We call you, we ask you, we shout; without Janaq, we cannot live. He left us, without waiting…! Sudden death, yours, but… January 14, day of mourning, day of destruction and misery. Janaq please, return to the boy, return to me. Oresti calls you, because you loved him so much, brother calls you, because you swore for him”.
Oreste Dilo, Alpha, N.Y.
Respect and gratitude for their work, full of intellectual knowledge, was also expressed by Shefki Miraku, published in the newspaper “Dielli”, on December 31, 1973. This is how it is written there, among others, by the author: “Ilia Dilo Sheperi; His two gifts, Albanian friendship”. …I want to point out, the other gift of this educator, the one I saw, knew, and shared. His two sons, Jani and Oresti. Both of them, in their talks, in their behavior and even more so in their actions, leave the traces of two people to be kneaded, through knowledge and civilization.
Only an undeveloped and backward society, does not understand and does not know how to value these two boys, who have grown up and are kneaded towards the goal, to serve the Albanian society with wisdom and generosity. They, everywhere, among school desks, among tasks, in friendship and in support, have extended their hands, even when they had to be cut short by the circumstances and surprises of life, they have extended them with their hearts to all those who they bear common names”.
Humane and democratic America welcomed the Albanian son Dr. Dilo
Dr. Dilo, finished his studies in Medicine in Turin, Italy. He was imprisoned as an anti-fascist in Italian prisons and received his diploma after he was released from prison. During his university years, he was friends with Pano Xhamballo, Themo Vasi, Qemal Stafa, Asim Zeneli, Ajet Xindolli, etc….! He also had friendships with Italian students, such as the Ravizza sisters whom he helped and visited when he had made a career, both in life and in the world of science and wealth.
He dreamed of returning to his homeland to cure malaria, which was everywhere, but the desire remained only a dream, he came only after the 90s. He had nowhere to turn, hell, torture and black death awaited him in his country, while America, having taken the “Dove of Peace” under its protection, had welcomed the Albanian doctor with open arms.
He had taken the Hippocratic oath and followed it to the last breath of his life, as stated in the last paragraph of Hippocrates, that: “If I respect this oath and do not violate it, may I enjoy my life and my profession , honored by all and, at all times; but if I break and violate this oath, may my fate be different”.
Dr. Oresti went on to further medical qualifications in America and achieved his high intellectual goal, receiving the title “Doctor of Medical Sciences”. For his extraordinary abilities in medicine, he was appointed Director General of the Public Hospitals in New York. After many years of experience, he opened his own private clinic in Alpha New Jersey, where he worked for 30 years as a doctor in that area.
Many of his patients, speak with extraordinary sympathy, almost appreciate him; “doctor with the soul of God”. “When I saw a poor patient in my clinic” – he told his grandson in Tirana, Yllit, “I would call him in particular and give him 100 dollars, while the visit was 50”.
On his first and last visit to Albania, he left a radio, along with a watch, as a souvenir to his grandson, Etjeni, a very precious intellectual. “This is the watch that has woken me up all my life, I won it at an international conference in New York.” He visited his hometown in his old age, bringing large suitcases with medicines, which he donated to the sick and some medical equipment, to the University of Tirana.
All the time he stayed in Tirana, he visited anyone who came to him without any reward. He also placed flowers in the “Martyrs Cemetery”, to his friends. He immediately sent experts to put to use the wealth accumulated during his years in exile, but his sudden death, after returning to New York, left it unrealized.
The shock of the great suffering, not finding any of the brothers in Albania, who fled this world, tortured by the dictatorial regime, which had put into service loyal soldiers thirsty for blood, surely hastened the doctor’s heart to rest forever, at the age of 75 years. Reading and studying about the Albanian son, Dr. Oreste E. Dilo, who served the American patients with such zeal, dedication and love, feels that while he cured thousands of American patients, he got sick from the Albanian “patients”, slaves of the brutal dictatorial system. Memorie.al
Staten Island, New York
