On Monday April 28th we suffered throughout the Iberian Peninsula the "blackout of the century". Everyone was cut off from communication, the batteries of our telephones were drained from unlocking them to see if they had a connection, the televisions were turned off... What can I tell you if many of the readers lived through it!
I can say that I spent a day of blackout "out of my comfort zone", (one day, if you like, we comment that, actually, I think I have no comfort zone...) but where it had to be.
I am a mother of a large family working in Madrid. I work very close to my children. When there are any extraordinary circumstances I can take care of them and telework, make up the hours..., I can't have more flexibility and facilities. I consider myself very lucky for that.
But the blackout caught me 400 kilometers away from all those facilities, from my husband, my children and my friends. The blackout caught me in Cordoba, taking care of my mother who had just undergone surgery. My return trip was scheduled for Tuesday 29th, and I was able to make it because at the station they were putting us on the train by destination, without looking at the times or dates of the tickets.
My mother's condition was nothing serious, but I had to be with her, giving her treatment and keeping her company. When you are 83 years old and live alone, any change in routine or new discomfort can be a real drag. God knows if she had been alone in the blackout, it would have been a harrowing day for her. With that "physical abandonment" that only our elders, lone survivors of a pandemic, know. Involuntary, but a result of the complication of lives their children have.
I suffered from not knowing anything about my children and my husband, but I knew that God wanted me to keep my mother company on that very different day.
We read (he can't read for a few days, and I read him a bit of the book he is reading, "Trust in God" by Jacques PhilippeWe prayed rosaries, listened to the radio and talked about many things.
We prayed several prayer cards to the servant of God Isidoro Zorzano, to him because "he worked in trains" my mother told me. Each picture was followed by good news: an SMS from my husband telling me that they were great, in a park near home; other messages from my siblings, and little by little, the power was restored everywhere.
The next day began with some uncertainty and the sorrow of leaving her and returning to my obligations..., but with that certainty that there are lights that do not go out: the love for a mother, the sacrifice for the children, the faith that God takes care of us and never leaves us alone, the generosity of the school principal (who knows you are far away and writes to you: your children have arrived at school).
In the face of these lights, there are no blackouts.
