Portal de Cartagena
www.portaldecartagena.com
Our deepest relationship emerged at the Board of the Institute of Spain: She was the President and I was the Representative of the Royal Pharmacy.
Although we had known each other for a long time before, we had not had occasion to promote our personal treatment.
They were hard times for Margarita because at this time she lost Eladio, her husband and in the comings and goings to San Bernardo 49, she trusted me with her most intimate feelings about the loss of her life partner.
Our respective lives were a little parallel: we both chose Biochemistry as the basis of our professions, she in Alberto Sols' group and I in Angel Santos Ruiz and Federico Mayor's.
We were both in the US
In the mid-sixties, she in New York with Severo Ochoa and I in Kansas City with Santiago Grisolía.
We both belonged to the CSIC.
And based on the face of 'pioneers', we both entered as first women in one of the Royal Academy of the Institute of Spain: I in the Real de Farmacia and she in the Real de Ciencias.
My relationship with his family was very intense.
His mother, Mrs. Margarita Falgueras, Andalusian and splendid woman, agreed with me from the first moment, as much as to tell me that she was very pleased that I was friends with her daughters.
I also met his brother Pepe, also a biochemist, who left us prematurely.
I remember once, of the many, that they invited me to eat at their home in Valdemorillo, where I was the only guest and shared the table with the whole family.
Joy reigned among us, and even Pepe, who was a man of few words, was sympathetic and animated.
Another parallel between Margarita and I was that she and I both had the good fortune of enjoying our mothers until very advanced ages.
Mine lived 98 years and yours 101, almost 102. We often commented with pleasure that being able to enjoy our mothers for so long was a "luxury".
How many good times we have spent together!
We met for any reason a small group of five or six women: her sister Marisa, Lucia, her daughter, the more than friend Pilar Urruticoechea, she and sometimes my sister Pilar.
On weekends we went to the theater, to concerts, to María Pagés ballet, sometimes to the cinema, etc.
Some other afternoon our fun was to snack "pancakes with cream."
Also some Sundays we attended with her a takeover in the Spanish Academy.
Reason for joy was when we celebrated their awards and decorations, which were numerous.
For example, when he was awarded the Echegaray medal he also invited my sister Pilar and we attended the session chaired by Los Reyes Emeritus at the Academy of Sciences
In Cartagena, my hometown, I organized a course, with the unconditional help of Juan Ángel Álvarez Gómez, an illustrious Cartagena and friend of mine, taking as a theme precisely the Nobel Prizes of that year.
In that course I had the great luck of having the interventions of Margarita Salas and Federico Mayor, among others.
Mayor José López Martínez, as the maximum representative of the City Council of Cartagena, presented the course and gave us all kinds of facilities.
He was very proud to receive the speakers and summoned the Cartagena and Murcia press.
This course had a great impact on the network.
The proximity of our houses made my relationship with Margarita, Lucía and Marisa easy.
Lucia opened the house and as her hobby was cooking, another aspect that demonstrates their affection for me was to invite me to eat almost every week.
Lucia called me: "Maria today we have a little cook", and I accepted delightedly, even though she didn't keep the line.
The next week they were lentils and so ...
Something that I can't stop commenting on is how many times we were invited to the Royal Palace for Stradivarius concerts.
And here comes a friend of Margarita and an extraordinary person: José Peris Lacasa.
Friend of Severo Ochoa.
It is noteworthy that José Peris, musician and composer, disciple of Carl Orff, was invited by Pope Benedict XVI on St. Joseph's Day, in 2010, to play his work before him "The last seven words of Christ on the cross for quartet of string and voice, adaptation of Haydn's original work ".
The Pope was also called Joseph.
Margarita, Pilar Urru (as we called her in confidence) and I were invited by the Pope to go to Rome and attend such an event.
I still keep the invitation of the Pope.
But, as the man proposes and God disposes, with the plane ticket in my pocket, I could not go because two days before I woke up with a herpes zoster that attacked my eye.
Margarita and Pilar and José himself told me in detail what happened.
It was a unique occasion in my life that I missed.
Those of us who knew her, her friends, knew that Margarita was a "very true" woman.
Simple, affectionate, endearing, that gave great value to true friendship and affection.
Extraordinarily correct in his treatment, he was communicative when he was confident: he told us his worries, his joys and also his sorrows.
It was also one of the people who had a very important quality: "I knew how to listen."
Very fond of music, good reading and art in general.
I could continue commenting because they have been many years of intense and continued treatment ...
I was to see her a couple of days before her death, I found her very bad, although with her perfect head.
Distressed I called Flora de Pablo, friend of the doctor who treated her ...
It was Flora herself who told me of her death.
Although I had seen it so badly, it didn't make me think of such an outcome.
You never expect it.
I will end these words with a famous Sevillian song that demonstrates my mood very well, and expresses just what I feel now: "something dies in the soul when a friend leaves."
We have so many memories, memories and longings left.
María Cascales Narrow
From the Royal Pharmacy
Cartagena's Favorite Daughter
Source: Grupo municipal MC Cartagena
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