Love for a person

Two different takes on the affection one can have for a person, even veneration!  Both from the Biographical Memoirs of the Oratory

Both are in the context of the admiration that boys had for Don Bosco.  Fr Giacomelli testifies

... they loved him dearly and held him in such veneration that all he had to do was express a mere wish to be instantly obeyed.  They avoided also whatever might displease him, but there was not a trace of servile fear in their obedience; it stemmed from their filial affection for him.  Indeed, some boys avoided wrongdoing more out of regard for him than for fear of offending God.  When he would come to know of this, he would reprimand them severely, reminding them that, 'God is much more than Don Bosco!' (BM III, 411) 

The other is a perspective from the boys, recorded by the theologian Piano, who was once a student at the oratory

We still feel the love we felt for you then ... Was it not here at the oratory that the majority of us were fed and clothed when we were destitute? ... This heart of mine will beat no more, before it ceases to love you.  We hold that loving you is to us a symbol of loving God (BM XVIII, 311-312).