A Look that Fall in Love
Sitting around the family table, where we have all gathered, **with delight**, I wish to express to you the great love we have for you, contemplating your kind face.
You keep intact the features of the beauty that once captivated the father and that the passage of time has rewritten with benevolence, without erasing the trace. The intense look, **full of life**, eternally young, immune to the fatigue of the years. A gaze that observes the world with greed, restless and serene at the same time, capable of surprising itself with the naivety of a teenager, happy with each new discovery. But, above all, a look that contemplates us, always observing us in depth, to know our feelings, our worries, our sorrows. Inquisitive and watchful, always alert, like an unchanging beacon that guides us in the midst of the storm.
The Safe Family Shelter
You know this very well: we all come to you, your daughters, your sisters, your grandchildren and now your great-grandchildren, the whole family seeks you and needs you, because you are a safe haven to lean on when adversity pursues us and our vulnerabilities appear, relentless. In the good times, no one enjoys like you, **showing enthusiasm** for each firm step, for each goal achieved. You are our first hooligan, the most enthusiastic fan of our little successes. But it is in the difficult moments when you become big, mother, very big, with your protective wings that gather us and comfort us, indestructible, welcoming, healing. Even though we want to go far, in pursuit of our ambitions and pleasures, we know that you are there when we fall, picking up the broken pieces, mending us like a patient spinner. I confess to you that your fortitude has been my guide throughout my life, an inexhaustible source of drive and determination that has inspired me and allowed me to move forward, even when circumstances were adverse. And every time I’ve fallen, I’ve come back to you like that little girl with bare knees who cried silently, so as not to show fear.
Constant Learning
Having you as a mother is a constant learning, an extraordinary challenge, a source of solidity and will. And above all, having you as a mother is a wonderful gift. I don’t know if you are aware of the strength and security that you convey to us, true matriarch of a family that you have taken care of delicately day after day. This family that now looks at you with happiness and gratitude is your work, your conquest. You have molded us with an indomitable character, giving us the courage that life will demand of us, but also with a sensitivity that reminds us, at every moment, of the goodness of the soul. Woman of firm convictions, you have transmitted to us the commitment towards our small and wounded homeland, the greatness of imagining distant horizons and the magnitude of loving without conditions.
The Love that unites you
How you loved the father yourself, from the first moment you met dancing sardanas: you, the girl from Barcelona who always wore a scarf around her neck; he, the young man from Cadaqués who overcame shyness to conquer you. We have seen you together and accomplices throughout a long life, united by an indestructible bond of gold that has connected us all around you. And when the father is gone, his memory has merged with you in such a way that we see him when we look at you, we have him when we have you, eternal in your gaze.
Ninety Years of Splendor
You are now ninety years old, ninety, mother, what an impressive number! But you are radiant in these ninety years, firm, determined, independent of all, with your imposing personality intact. It’s true that age has slowed your pace, which used to be tireless, and now your knees mark a more leisurely beat. Health and age relentlessly remind us of biology and its inexorability. But time has not worn away your perseverance, your infinite love for us, your perpetual headaches, and your ability to protect us. Today, as we are here to celebrate your long life, let me tell you that having you as a mother is a constant learning, an extraordinary challenge, a source of strength and will. And above all, having you as a mother is a wonderful gift. Thank you for a life given to us. Thank you for being our unshakable rock, our source of inspiration, our mother, mother of mothers. May you live many years, Pilar.
