MIS PADRES - MY PARENTS

Mi madre iba para solterona. Tenía 25 años y aún no tenía novio ni nada que se lo pareciese. Antes de la guerra (¿civil?) ella se había enamorado de un tal Iñaki que murió en la guerra. Sin embargo mi padre, amigo de mi tio Rafael, siempre la quiso desde que tenía 15 años. En silencio. Llegó la guerra, mi madre y mi amona (por si alguien no sabe a estas alturas, significa abuela en euskera--vascuence) se fueron a Bruselas, mi tio Rafael quedó exiliado en Burdeos para los restos de su vida, tio Pacho (no sé dónde estuvo) y tia Mercedes encarcelada al igual que su marido, tio Gerardo, tricotándole jerseys. Acabó la guerra. Mi amona y mi madre volvieron a Irún. Mi madre era el patito feo de la familia, al contrario de su hermana Mercedes que era un bellezón, tenía todo al revés. Piernas gruesas, pecho pequeño, buena dentadura, eso sí (lo hemos heredado de mi amona) bonitos ojos, pero nariz aguileña un poco torcida...pobrecita. No era fea pero tampoco era guapa. Como iba diciendo, pasó la guerra. Un dia que tia Mercedes estaba en Madrid, paseando por la Gran Vía se tropezó ¡con mi padre! "Hola Manolo, cómo estás...qué alegría de verte..." Papá preguntó por mi madre. Tia Mercedes (encantada) le dijo que estaba en Irún y que seguía soltera. Mi padre, rápidamente, le contactó por carta. A los pocos meses se casaron y tambien se quisieron toda la vida. Hasta que la muerte (de mi padre) los separó.

My mother was on her way to being a spinster. She was twenty-five years old and she didn't have a boyfriend or anything close to it. Before the Spanish (civil?) war she had been in love with someone called Iñaki who died during the war. However, my father, friend of my uncle Rafael, had always been in love with her since he was fifteen. In silence. The war arrived and my mother and grandmother left for Brussels, my uncle Rafael lived as an exile in Bordeaux for the rest of his life, my uncle Pacho I don't know WHERE he was, my aunt Mercedes was imprisonned, knitting sweaters for her husband, my uncle Gerard. The war ended. My grandmother and mother returned to Irún. My mother was the ugly duckling of the family, as regards to her beautiful sister, Mercedes, my mother had fat legs, small breasts, crooked large nose, beautiful eyes and teeth (these we have inherited from my grandmother). She wasn't altogether ugly but she wasn't a beauty. As I was saying, the war ended. One day when my aunt Mercedes was walking in the Gran Vía of Madrid, she bumped into my father! "Manolo, how are you??? I'm SO happy to see you...!" My father asked her about my mother. She very happily replied that she was still single and living in Irún. My father wrote to her and a few months later they were married. They loved eachother until death (my father) did them apart.