Farewell to my grandfather of the heart, whom I could not hug when he died of Coronavirus

I am here, in the cemetery of La Chacarita, stop on the stairs at the entrance of the crematorium, in the middle of the Buenos Aires winter and alone. Vine a cremar el cuerpo de mi abuelo.In front I have a Chinese family with chin and masks, all crying.A little further away there is a young pregnant woman without chin.Cries inconsolably too. A todos nosotros nos une algo: tenemos un ser querido que se contagió de Covid-19 y murió.

The procedure is painful and we are necessarily distanced, it is part of the protocol.The previous day, the House of Times sent me on WhatsApp the instructions for cremation.Textually, they said:

“Hello Lula.Tomorrow 10:30 Enter the cemetery along Jorge Newbery Street (height 4.500) you will find the SR.Carlos.He goes with the ambulance and awaits you from the side inside.He will be dressed as an astronaut.When you are at the door you will see that there are security personnel. Te van a indicar cuál es la ambulancia que lleva el cuerpo de tu abuelo.You just have to continue with your car ".

In the message I had the patent of the ambulance because it would be many, many, and sometimes families cannot identify them.They also reminded me that I could only go by car (taxi, uber, whatever but in car) because it is forbidden to enter the cemetery walking.

I already entered, I already followed the correct ambulance, they created my grandfather and now I move away.The procedure is finished and I return to the car that brought me. Lo hago sola con el corazón roto por no haberme podido despedir, por no haber podido acompañar, más que a la distancia, a Mario.He accompanied me so many times, so many sides.

Mario m.He was 75 years old, he was born in Federal Capital, he is the most Buenos Aires person I met.As a young man had a kiosk of newspapers and magazines and loved the customs of this city: to go to the Palermo racecourse, go to the coffees with friends. Escribo estas líneas para despedirme pero también para dejar constancia que tuve un abuelo hermoso, con sueños y esperanzas.It was not just a number of those read in the report of the Ministry of Health.It was my grandfather of the heart. Yo lo elegí a él como abuelo y él me eligió a mí como nieta.

When I arrived from Salta, eight years ago, with dreams of a journalist, I raffled all the obstacles that some people from the interior have to face.I lived in hotels of bad death, in little girls, a little where I could.Once they dislodged because there was a search there in the pension where I lived, I don't know what a mafia, it was by Congress. Después de “remarla” pude acceder a una pieza en un departamento que mi amigo JuanCarlos, con las garantías que yo no poseía, alquiló en Recoleta.Callao at 800, a third B.In the third A lived an old couple.

Lo recuerdo como si fuese ayer, la primera vez que vi a Mario me impresionó: era un hombre de 1,80 metros, todo canoso, grandote, un poco desgarbado y con mi compañero de casa nos sentíamos intimidados porque lo escuchábamos gritar fuerte.In the building I had no good reputation, quite the opposite, they called him a rude one, to answer badly and even smoking in the halls.He lived with his wife Amelia, a kind lady but who didn't go much and didn't talk.We started finding out, among the neighbors, who this man was.

We came to think that maybe he was screaming in her so with Juanca we armed ourselves with courage and we went to hit the door.We couldn't hit because when we arrived the door was half open. Cuando nos asomamos vimos a Mario gritándole a una tostadora. Amelia, que justo volvía de comprar, nos encontró en el pasillo desconcertados y nos dijo: “perdónenlo, chicos.Is half deaf ".

That was Mario, a slightly rough and screaming man.But we immediately became friends with the couple.In Federal Capital, you do not know many times not to meet your neighbors, or know who lives next. Nosotros formamos una pequeña familia y la primera vez que los invitamos a comer Mario me dijo: “Amelia está nerviosa, hace 12 años que nadie nos invita a comer”.

Pasaron los años y a esta suerte de familia inventada y disfuncional llegó mi perro Jaimito, un mestizo callejero que encontramos a la salida de un recital de Jaime Roos.Jamitio was kicking a man in a street situation.The man and the dog were playing a plate of food. JuanCarlos, un entrerriano de metro noventa, quiso intervenir pero la situación era muy delicada.Finally we take the dog from there. Cuando se los mostramos a Mario se ofreció a pasearlo.Mario and Jaimito became inseparable.

They say that even the hardest people tender themselves with the love of an animal. Ese fue lo que le pasó a Mario con Jaimito: de golpe mi abuelo se volvió otro. Empezó a salir, se hizo amigo de otros dueños de perros en el canil del barrio.In the block everyone began to call them "the old man and the puppy".

All the friends who passed through that department of Callao and Córdoba met him or took a wine with him.Mario was part of all our meetings because he went to greet or entered surprisingly. Sí, por supuesto que tenía llave de nuestra casa.

Once the Juanca rental contract was finished, it turned to Entre Ríos and I stayed again homeless, without salary receipt or guarantee.It was inevitable to return to pensions and hotels of bad death. A pesar de esto, no hubo duda por parte de Mario y Amelia de permitirme dormir en su sillón e incluso me propuso cuidar a Jaime hasta que yo esté en condiciones de alquilar algo.The panorama was bleak but they were my pilar for all that time.

Our relationship then strengthened.I remember that I didn't want to call them "grandparents" because they had no children. Sin embargo, una vez cuando fui a cubrir una manifestación con incidentes en el Palacio Pizzurno y casualmente Mario pasaba por ahí con Jaime, le dijo a un policía que se me acercaba amenazante: “ella es mi nieta, no le toque un pelo porque le armo un escándalo y le suelto al perro”.From that day I turned his granddaughter and he, my grandfather.

I always wanted to have grandparents, envied my schoolmates when they were going to look for their grandmothers and took them to take a smoothie in the center of Salta.Or the stories that told me. La mezquindad o decisiones de los adultos me privaron de eso, así que Mario me regaló lo que hasta ese momento la vida no me había dado.That always seemed wonderful.There were no obligations or birthday meetings imposed.We were accompanying us, adopting how we had adopted Jaimito.

We spend Christmas and new years.On Sundays, of course, they were from the grandparents.Once I won $ 5000 in Quini 6 and took them to eat a Parrillita del Abasto.They were happy.Then I headed again and I could rent by my own means.When I went to look for Jaimito many neighbors of the building asked me: “Don't take the dog that Mario and Amelia look happy with him.What are they going to do without Jaime? ”. Entendí que ya no iba a poder separar a esos dos, así que acordamos tenencia compartida de Jaimito.

Over time, Mario's health began to deteriorate.Ceased to be what it was. Su EPOC, producto de fumar desde los 12 años, no lo dejaba respirar bien y su corazón no estaba funcionando correctamente.At the beginning of 2020 he spent all January hospital but managed to get ahead and returned home with Amelia.

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March arrived and with that the novelty of the Coronavirus, which until then we had minimized.We were day before the quarantine was decreed.I returned from my new job and I went to visit them to snack.We laughed, I took books and fixed the TV.We remembered Jaime's anecdotes and he, and I left, without knowing that this would be the last time I was going to see. “¿Sabes qué, Luli? Ustedes con Jaime me hicieron muy feliz” me dijo esa tarde. Yo me reí y tomé esa declaración a la ligera, ahora me arrepiento. Siempre hay que decirle a las personas que queremos lo importantes que son para nosotros. Parece una frase hecha pero realmente es así.

El sábado 30 de mayo, el día de mi cumpleaños, Mario salió a hacer las compras, no pudo respirar y se cayó. Gente amable lo levantó y lo llevó a su casa. Amelia llamó a una ambulancia y se lo llevaron.It was going to be the last time he was going to see his life partner.

The hospitalization

Mario entered Coronary Unit at Rivadavia Hospital. Allí pasó pocas semanas hasta que ocurrió lo peor: a él y a otras personas les diagnosticaron Covid-19. Esa misma semana, los trabajadores de salud del Rivadavia habían hecho un cese de tareas protestando por la muerte del enfermero José Aguirre.They even claimed that in areas 4 and 6 traumatology 100% of the workers had infected coronavirus.

I went to the hospital in various opportunities to deliver documentation or take a book to my grandfather.Many nurses who helped me to happen to him or recover his clothes had been infected and one day I could no longer access.The panorama in the place was gradually transformed.On one occasion I was waiting for the temperature to take me and a woman arrived with her daughter, who was about 9 years old.I heard how he told one of the nurses that her sister -in -law and her husband had the virus and that she and her daughter presented symptoms.That for that reason a collective had been taken and came. Tuve miedo, por primera vez. Ese miedo me hizo tomar dimensión de lo que estábamos viviendo.

The days went by.Mario's state of health was in descent. Estuvo en la Unidad Coronaria del Hospital, después lo pasaron a un pabellón para pacientes con Covid y de allí fue derivado por sus problemas respiratorios a la Unidad de Terapia Intensiva, UTI.

They were intense weeks.Every day we received calls from doctors to give us the part.Was sedated all the time.Slowly the coronavirus was taking the body and previous pathologies did not help in its improvement.There was no positive signal.

One of the quarantine nights, while sleeping, Jaimito began to cry desperate, with that acute crying that dogs do when they want to leave.It was 4 in the morning.I took it as an omen.

On Wednesday, July 22 at 4 in the morning, my grandfather's heart did not give more and his body either.The coronavirus had deteriorated a lot."If I came back, I was not going to be the same," they told me as a comfort, but that did not comfort me anything.The doctor gave me a diagnosis and told me that the heart had failed, that he had grown in size.What irony, because Mario's big heart was what made him my grandfather.

Amelia received the news for me.I approached home and from the hall I talked.I couldn't even give him a hug.

There began another course, that of the procedures and the recovery of the body.The way for the dead by Covid is already drawn: from intensive therapy to the morgue, which is usually overwhelmed with corpses.

-Did you inform you that you will not see it again?

-Yes, I'm aware.

Then came the procedures to take the body to the cemetery. “Mirá piba, tenés que apurarte porque a los fallecidos con Covid las empresas les cobran más para llevarlos”, me dijo un camillero de la morgue. Un servicio de sepelio por Covid cuesta entre 32 y 45 mil pesos para trasladar el cuerpo hasta el crematorio.The factor that fundamentally affects the price is nothing more or nothing less than the despair of family members, like a locksmith at 5 in the morning, but instead of opening the door you bury you a loved one.

Attentive to the Camillero Council, I hurried to call and achieved an "accessible" price.

En la última charla que Mario tuvo con Amelia le pidió que, si moría, sus cenizas fueran esparcidas en dos lugares.First, at the racecourse, burrero old.And the rest, in the Plaza de la Calle Marcelo T.Alvear, where he was happy with Jaimito.

I write this story with the sole intention of saying goodbye to Mario and to pay tribute to its existence.So that your life has testimony.So that it is not a number of statistics. Para dejar por escrito que tuve la suerte de cruzarme con él.For all the unnamed marios that this virus kills and who die alone or in their homes. Escribo esta historia para dejar dicho que tuve un abuelo y que ese abuelo fue Mario.

I continued reading:

La conmovedora despedida de una paciente recuperada de coronavirus: su madre murió por la pandemia y no la pudo ver“Si te toca morir, te vas solo como mi papá”: el crudo relato de una hija que el Covid le negó la despedida