Part One: Who am I
I received the joyous news that my granddaughter wants to write about my life. Upon hearing her proposal I was very happy because I like to explain my life, but I do not know how long I can keep remembering what I write in this document (which is now part of my life), and that Alzheimer's is disease that does not has rest, is like an enemy that wants to kill me but he does not know that also end with itself. As, unfortunately, I do not read or write, I'll explain the story to my granddaughter and she will be my hands, the person who will give life to the story in the paper, which fill the pages of dead white and small souvenirs, cheers and sorrows. But now let's put aside all this and start with the story, but will not last long in my memory, it will remain etched forever in this paper.
My name is Antonio Arellano Arellano, I live in a town called Lentegí, is a small village in the mountains of Granada, located in one of the most important tropical valleys of Spain and this is the summary of my life.
Part two: my childhood.
I was born into a poor family, on May 7, 1923. I am the third child of the marriage existed between Antonio Arellano and Angels. My birth took place in a small, simple house in the middle of Lentegí town where I spent my childhood, my maturity and where am enjoying senescence.
In those days, as my family was very large and very humble, my parents could not buy us toys for my brothers and sisters, but we did not give you important because we were happy with what we had. I remember I loved to play hide and seek with my brothers and the rest of the village children, we played every evening, whether summer or winter, the village streets were filled with the music of our laughter, the laughter of happy children not yet knew it was a war and what was starving.
Children who were not rich colored stones we collected and we did see we played marbles, organizing tournaments and championships. Sometimes, my mother gave me some tissue or a rag to play the game with my friends bandanna. We played until our mothers called us for dinner or, well, until we had just so tired that all he wanted was rest and eat the occasional sweet.
With shouts and laughter of happy child I remember the day of my First Communion, unfortunately this memory is erasing going slowly and I have no photograph to remember when my disease is more advanced. My mother and my godmother, I concocted a tailored communion that I did not like but I wore it with pride, because the day of Communion is one of the most important in the life of a child days. After appropriate mass, went to eat to the field with the whole family (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins ...) and it was fun. All guests joked and gave me what good they could. I was the richest kid people, because I got in total 8 reales (currently there are about 30 euro cents) and saved for a long time, like the world's greatest treasure.
Recalling now these scenes of my childhood, I feel nostalgia for the innocent happiness of that time, I miss my friends, running and carefree laugh, hurt knees and elbows after the cure for my mother and she engages me sweet words and loving. I miss taking hot chocolate on Christmas Day and as good donuts that my mother made us. I miss the love of my mother and her sweet kisses.
From school I can not talk much. I could not attend school because only children of the rich could afford to have a teacher, because in the village there was a public school. I stared at, admired, those rich kids who could enjoy the luxury of going to school, envied by the simple fact that they could aspire to be something more than simple peasants and laborers. Instead, I had to help my parents in farm work and take care of my younger siblings, but nevertheless was less happy or less innocent than other children.
Part Three: adolescence and youth.
The first job, and the only thing I've had in my entire life, has been the farmer and trader. As my father died when I was very young (I have around about 14 years), I had to expand my scope of work to help my mother raise my brothers, because we were poor, nothing over us neither food nor money. During my youth I used the black market food, vending and production and sale of charcoal, vegetables, fruit, olive oil and honey. Also went to work collecting cane sugar and esparto. He traveled from town to town for days, with my mule laden with all kinds of food to sell. During that time I made many friends and acquaintances, friendships that have lasted to this day.
When I was young I never belonged to any club, but I loved to play cards with friends, but never were betting money. We used to meet every Sunday at a friend's house and we played brisca, tute, auction. It was very funny, I was relaxing and was a form of escape from reality. I also liked to go for walks along the river and see beautiful women wash and hang clothes on the banks of the river, singing, laughing and stories and tales were explained. In this way I met my wife.
During that time I saw the Spanish Civil War. I still shudder to remember the sound of bombs falling on the streets and the homes of neighbors. Uncertainty about the future and the cries of the children and seeing people near death , theft and all acts carried out soldiers and guerrillas. I have a fuzzy memory of the noise of machine guns by shooting people in the village square . I remember the sound of sirens when bombers approached the people and the desperate race looking for a safe haven , hunger , misery , terror, the smell of death . I taxed my memory to fire terror in every face of every neighbor, dismembered bodies , blood, the bombed houses, looted and burned . Even today I see those children terrified and starving . I remember protecting mothers , with their bodies , their young children from the bullets. I remember my mother hugging all her children during the aerial bombardment and still see her praying for God to save us .
I remember one day, while traveling with my mule laden oil in jars along a road saw, I was arrested at gunpoint by the guerrillas (or maquis, as we called them then) and I was forced to sell all oil under threat of death.
At that time, lived in the village a man (an informer) who contributed to the Civil Guard (fascist police). If this neighbor became enemy of someone, that person could become accused of collaborating with the guerrillas so that was arrested, tortured and often murdered. This man offered to buy several sacks of barley but, on principle and because I knew that innocent people died because of him, I refused to sell my barley. For many months I was forced to sleep in the mountains because everyone feared might come the Civil Guard to get me home (because generally people were arrested during the night) and take me for "a ride" (this was what Civil Guard said to a person when they would kill).
But not all were penalties, when I had to do military service I was stationed in Melilla. I will always remember the rigidity of the army, the heat and hard work. I also made many friends during meals and we sat together and talked about our families, the future brides and remembered that we had left in our towns. We also made marches to Larache, Nador, Tetouan, etc.. (Morocco).
Part Four: adulthood.
As for my marriage , I can hardly remember the exact date of my wedding but I think it was between 1939 and 1942 , between the end of the war and post- war. I have a feeling that it was not a very happy marriage, was not your typical wedding looks nowadays with all arranged and the bride dressed in white and the groom in a tuxedo . My wedding was a typical post-war ceremonial , no carriage or limousine , no bridal procession to accompany my wife from his house to the church door , my wife could not wear a pretty white dress , but that he was dressed in Sunday clothes , with a small bouquet of fresh flowers and a pair of worn shoes. Still was the most beautiful woman of the people , the clothes did not matter that she was put in that for me, she always looked beautiful . I also wore Sunday clothes , with a hat and shoes worn by use. No photographs were taken or hire any photographer, because we did not have enough money to afford that luxury , yet both were happy. After the wedding ceremony, we all went to eat at the field and made a great feast , eating crumbs , singing and dancing flamenco.
After we got married we could not travel honeymoon, but that did not matter because we were so happy in our house recently released. We always went everywhere together: we work to the countryside, collecting sugar cane, to the collection of grapes in France ... We were, and are, a well-matched marriage and we loved (and we still love) intensely.
My oldest son was born in 1953, was a great joy for us because, after years of marriage and failed attempts, we did not expect to have any children. Currently, my eldest son is married to a woman from the neighboring village. It has given me a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren (which I have not had the pleasure of meeting). When he was young, in my opinion was too young, emigrated to Catalonia toward a better quality of life. He currently lives in a small village on the Costa Brava, in the province of Gerona.
My mid son was born in 1957, as a small child was a very naughty child and nervous, but always tore us a smile with all his antics and, even today, he know how to get me away from the sadness and make me forget this disease for a moment, and get everything back to the way it was, I return to smile and be happy. This, perhaps the most beloved, my son emigrated very young (20 years) to Catalonia, because then there were more job options. He is married to a woman from Galicia and has given me two granddaughters who are the joy of my old age, my oldest granddaughter is a teacher and my youngest granddaughter is a nurse.
My little daughter was born in 1965. She has always been a bit problematic but introverted girl and has always been the most beloved daughter for my wife. She studied hairdressing. She married a man from a neighboring village, my beloved daughter was being abused by her husband and after 4 years of marriage, and with our help, she could divorce and stop fearing. It has given me two grandchildren who are very loving and they need me. Currently lives in the same town as me, near my house. She is responsible for looking after me and my wife and in return, we helped her and her children as it does not get her salary to buy food.
I have always maintained the same jobs that exerted during my adolescence. I worked as a peasant and peddler . I stopped dedicate the black market because the surveillance was relaxed by the fascist government and the Civil Guard , they no longer watched everything we sold and left to steal our food, it was an activity that became unnecessary. Also traveling from town to town with my mule loaded with oranges, avocados , honey , olive oil , jars of wine, grapes and anything that could get the field or fruit . I had extensive olive groves and got many olives as I had to mill the olives to make oil and sell it later. Every year I used to travel with my children and my wife to the collection of sugarcane and grapes in France for a few years I was the foreman of the group of workers who went to both sites. I also engaged in the sale of charcoal kilns producing it on my own and had installed in the highlands, in a very dangerous precipice .
Picture Canyon where I had installed coal furnaces:
I have never had car, cars did not reach the village until the 60s, my mode of transportation was mule and if I had to travel very far in a short period of time, traveling by bus. Sometimes, especially if I had to go to the neighboring village, traveling on foot.
The most significant events that have occurred during my maturity were: the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the transition to democracy and the attempted putsch on February 23 (in Spain known as 23-F).
The death of Francisco Franco was a very significant event because it meant the end of one of the cruelest dictators that Spain has ever known. For me it was especially important because I saw friends and family will come under the grip of repression, I have seen my friends tortured, my cousins and neighbors dead and my little sister imprisoned. Although it was a moment of liberation for many people, were also moments of uncertainty: first, no one wanted to go through a civil war and, on the other, because we feared having another dictatorship worse than that of General Francisco Franco. Francisco Franco, an affable to the world man, sent thousands to labor camps and also sent trains (with hundreds of political prisoners) to the death camps of Nazi Germany. All this was done under the impassive gaze of the other European nations, who were plunged into World War II.
The transition was also important because, for me, represented the transition from repression and absolutism to democracy. People began to stop fearing their rulers, began to speak out without fear of reprisal. For the first time in many years, I had the feeling that the people's voice was heard. The Government of General Franco was dismantled gradually re and, in 1977, the first democratic elections after the Civil War took place. At that time, Spain signed the treaty of adhesion to the European Economic Community (EEC), which later would become the European Union. During that time the constitution was signed, in which the rights and duties of all Spanish citizens are recognized. At the end of the transition, Spain also joined the Organization North Atlantic Treaty.
It is also important to mention the attempted coup of February 23, 1981 (23 -F) , but in my town there was no uprising by the Civil Guard, generated a lot of fear in the population , as it could be the possibility that the democratic government was overthrown and a military government was in place again. It was a failed coup , carried out by some military officers , led by Lieutenant - Colonel Antonio Tejero . I remember people locked himself at home, in the streets of the town or a voice , or a laugh, or a step was not listening , all was silence , a silence that stank of fear. I remember I spent hours and hours watching television , watching for any news , looking for a glimmer of hope for me, for my family , for my acquaintances and to all those people who had suffered so much under the tyranny of General Franco. I still remember the exact time that he ended the nightmare of the people at 1:15 am on February 24 , the King intervened on television wearing the uniform of Captain General of the armies to stand against the insurgents, and call to order the Armed Forces in his capacity as commander in chief of the Spanish army. At the time " Millans del Bosch" was arrested and , after a long resistance , Tejero was arrested and deputies were released.
Part Five: well I am now
Although I've left some sites and I'm sick, I'm still working the land. Now I work the land, more for pleasure than necessity, because I do not want to burden my wife and my daughter. Sometimes I get angry because my wife will not let me go alone to the field, she says she fears that disoriented me and miss me, but she does not understand that working in the field allows me to forget this disease even for a few hours. I know she is right, because sometimes disoriented to me being in my own house, and then I remember where I am because I see a photograph of the wedding of my little son, on a shelf in the dining room. But Alzheimer's is so hard!
I live in a small house Street station in Lentegi, this is where I have lived the most important events of my life, this is where I spend my disease and is the place where I want to die. I currently live with my wife. My daughter, along with my two grandchildren, most of the day passed in this house, and I need a lot of help and my wife can not take care of everything. In return, we give them to eat and everything they need, and that children should always help them as required.
Lentegi has not changed much, is a little bigger, it has a pool, a multipurpose hall for young people, a school, a small hall and a medical office (doctor comes only one day a week). Here everybody knows everybody and people tend to be very open and welcoming to the point that the front doors are always open for all residents. The only means of transport in the village are the car and the bus. You can only enter by car or bus to the town square so that if an ambulance comes to get some sick, they go looking for trouble and should take all the utensils walk to the home of the patient or where the accident occurred.
My room is very simple and is not adapted for when I can not walk, but very cozy and comfortable. It is a small room which is located at the entrance hall of the house, has a small window that faces the street and is always full of flowers and plants, as my wife likes a lot. There is an oak cabinet, very old, who brought it my wife when we got married and, today, still preserved very well. We also have the same bed when we got married, with iron structure, a head of black bars and gold and the mattress is made of latex. We have two bedside tables with matching oak wardrobe and dressing table, inherited from my wife's grandmother.
The living room is one of the most important areas of the house because it is where you perform most activities of daily family. It is also very small, but very cozy and is full of memories. Upon entering there is a large brick fireplace with a shelf full of pictures of all my grandchildren. There is also a round table covered with a large cloth and, under it, a small brazier.
My habits do not vary much from one day to another. Usually I wake up around 9 or 10 am, then my wife prepared my breakfast and my daughter helps me get dressed, wash and shave. After breakfast, if I can, I go to the field to work a bit and if I can not, I'll take a walk through the town square and I entertain talking with friends and neighbors. After eating miro programs "Canal Sur" (TV channel of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain), and towards evening, my wife and I sat on the steps of the front door and met all neighbors to talk a while.
And this, friends, is the story of my life before Alzheimer leave me without it.
