Thus, Pope Francis reminds their neighbors and merchants from Buenos Aires and Rome

In Buenos Aires and in Rome, neighbors, merchants and old acquaintances share stories that reveal humanity and closeness of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who, before being Pope Francis, was known simply as “Father Jorge.”

In the Barrio de Flores, where he was born and lived much of his life, the memory of his passage as a priest is still preserved by the Basilica of San José. Only two blocks from there, in the Muglia Shoes family store, they remember when they bought newly ordered moccasins.

“I know that the father came here because my dad has spoken to me, he told me: ‘The father of the San José Church comes to buy us.’ But I was very small. They are memories that are being left … and what the neighbors tell me,” said Juan José Muglia, current owner of the shoe store, to Ewtn News.

In the corner, Antonio Plastina’s newspaper kiosk was for years a dominical gathering point with the then Cardinal Bergoglio: “We talked how we talked about Argentines: politics, football … we mixed everything. But more football, because it was very football. He loved it.”

A few blocks beyond, in the house where he grew up, the neighbors placed flowers after their departure on April 21, 2025, Easter Monday.

Alicia Gigante, 90 years old, shared one of her last matches with Francisco, in which she highlighted her well -known sense of humor: “I always blessed me. He said: ‘Mon, my eyes, I hardly see’. And he approached, he spoke to me short my ear and said: ‘For what is to be seen.”

On the other side of the ocean, in Rome, there were also indelible traces of the close and affable style of the late Holy Father. The Ranieri Mancinelli tailor, specialized in religious clothing, clearly recalls his first encounter:

“I met him more than once. What marked me was his smile. He did not impress me to be the Pope, but because he was a very friendly, very simple man. He asked me practical things, that they were not faces,” he said.

His taste for ice cream frequently took him to the ice cream shop of Argentine Sebastián Padrón, a few meters from the Santa Marta house: “It was our usual client for more than seven years. My family was always very close to him. The memory is wonderful … that’s why it hurts so much,” he said.

In an optics of the historic center, Luke Espiecia exactly remembers the Pope’s attitude when he went to change his glasses: “He appeared alone, like Francesco. We offered some new ones, but said: ‘I do not want to spend money for no reason. Let’s put the new crystals in these’. And before leaving, he turned around and said: ‘But remember, I want to pay the crystals.”

These simple scenes resonate with special force after the death of Pope Francis, last Easter Monday. The previous day, in an act that will remain in the memory of the world, he said goodbye publicly to about 50 thousand people gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro, where he taught his last blessing City and the World.

Those who knew him in his daily life coincide in something essential: he never ceased to be Jorge. Near, simple, human.