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María José Carchano
Valencia
Wednesday, 20 November 2024, 10:46
Pura Feliciano has been wearing black since she was widowed 70 years ago. She was only married for nine months before her husband, who was 27 at the time, died of cancer. They did not have children, so Pura has been very lonely in that old house in the centre of the Valencian town of Paiporta.
She has never wanted to leave the home in which she did not see her children grow up, but in which there have been many memories, of the father she lost "in war" when she was only nine years old, the first fatality of her life that forced her to leave school and take care of her two younger brothers. "I can hardly read," she said.
What Pura, who until she broke her hip this summer was like a rose, did not know is that at 96 she would have to live through the dramatic 'Dana' weather event that has left her with nothing, turning all her antique furniture, many of which are more than a century old, into wood rotted by water and mud.
It was a local resident, Eduardo, who remembered Pura when the water rose dangerously high, and jumped out of a window to save her. He says they have always looked after each other; "four generations we have been without quarrelling", he told SUR's sister newspaper Las Provincias. She would not have been able, on her own, to climb the stairs to the only high place, the attic, which has remained dry and safe from flood waters, and where she now lives, and from which she no longer wants to come down.
In that space under the roof she has spent a fortnight sleeping in a wheelchair, until they got her an armchair where her battered hips allow her to lie down. Pura has had many angels, and one of them wears a uniform and is called Sergio.
Born in Granada, Sergio is a legionnaire, and he was with his Ronda detachment cleaning the street where Pura lives when they told him about this woman who, since she lost everything, doesn't want to talk to anyone, is very sad and just wants to die. So he went up, sat next to her, talked to her, comforted her and made her laugh again. The next day, he brought half the detachment to meet Pura. Then, he brought Estíbaliz, a military nurse, to see how she is doing with her medication, to cure her of the bedsores she has developed from all the days she has been unable to move from that chair. Now, it is two Colombian women, Isabel during the day and Mayra at night, who look after Pura. The 96-year-old won't hear about going to any nursing home, or to anyone's house. "They won't move me from here," she says firmly. Isabel, sitting next to her, silent, with her own sorrows - she also lives in Paiporta - says that Pura is the nicest person in the world. Pura denies it: "I've always been one to suffer and keep quiet", and smiles.
Sergio caresses her face, kisses the petite woman, who sinks into the cushions that have been placed for her, while she gradually unravels past memories of how she worked extremely hard to eat all her life, and that now, no longer exists.
Pura no longer eats solid food, only the baby food and broths that are brought to her, as in Paiporta there are no shops to buy anything and everyone lives on humanitarian aid. Pura, who is covered with a blanket, with the door of the laundry terrace open so the damp smell goes away, is in a room where the images of the Virgen de los Desamparados and San Vicente Ferrer have a prominent place.
Sergio takes advantage of the visit to bring her a very special gift. He takes out, solemnly, the Legion's coat of arms, squares himself before her, and says, "my general", while Pura laughs. She doesn't understand much, but she feels accompanied, at last. This legionnaire has already told her that while she is in Paiporta he will go to see her every day, and that he will travel the more than 650 kilometres that separate them when he has to return to Ronda. He also said he will remember her when, next year, during holy week in Malaga, he will raise as high as he can, the Cristo de la Buena Muerte (Christ of the Good Death).
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