This will be the saddest Christmas by Mayra Gómez Kemp, the first without the company of her husband, Alberto Berco, passed away on January 18 at 91 years of age.

Mayra has always been a strong woman, of those people who grow up in the face of adversity, an example of personal improvement, which has exceeded two carcinogenic episodes very serious and that today affirms positively that “we have to move on and look to the future with optimism”.

How are you?

Well, calm down, I have a problem with a nail that has become infected, they are treating me, but otherwise fine.

These will be his first Christmas without Alberto …

And I will have a hard time remembering the great love that united us until his death and that ended at the beginning of the year when he left this world.

I know it’s hard to talk like that, but you can’t get stuck in the memories.

Yes, but they were almost fifty years of life together, full of love and great experiences. Of course, I am very clear that I must move on …

Mayra corroborates what she announced at the beginning of this interview: «I will spend the holidays alone, at home, I have no intention of going anywhere, or of being with friends. I need my space”.

And his family?

I have no family in Spain. In fact, Joaquín and Lucía, the Pimpinela duo, have just left, so closely linked to my husband, and also Alberto’s eldest daughter and grandson. I have spent some very nice days with them. I have great affection for them.

When you look back to that half a century with your husband, is everything that comes to mind positive?

Everything, I do not have a bad memory. They were fifty wonderful years. And if he were to be born again, he would sign for everything to be the same. I thank life.

In this tough year, has your strength never failed you?

Well … thank God I’ve always been a strong woman.

We have known each other for over forty years. It pains me to imagine her alone on Christmas Eve.

Well, it will be like that.

Wouldn’t you like to have an alternative plan?

No, I don’t want it. In addition, there is a lot of pandemic and I do not want to go out. It is better to stay home alone. You have to be cautious.

Do you think people don’t care about this pandemic?

That is the bad thing, that many do not realize the situation. And they are irresponsible. I leave home with a dropper, I am a high risk person, therefore the cancer I had, and I must take care

How was Christmas with your husband?

I’m going to tell you one thing. We did not celebrate them, because Alberto was a Jew and we did not follow the canons of Christian Christmas.

Neither on New Years Eve?

I won’t take the grapes because I can choke. Remember that I suffered from throat cancer. In truth, for me, these holidays are normal days, I have nothing to celebrate.

Very few people knew that he was a Jew.

Well, family and friends. I told Alberto, laughing, that he was the Jew of the family and I screwed up, ha ha ha.

May I wish you happy holidays anyway?

I’d rather you wish me a quiet Christmas better. It is the most appropriate. I do not ask for anything more.

Before saying goodbye, she made another confession to me: «I’m still in love with Alberto, wherever he is, I’m sure he knows it. And that I miss him every minute of my life. It is thus and thus it will be ».

Do you live with a certain economic relief?

I am retired who collects his pay every month. And I receive the pension without problems.

Cuban by birth, she moved with her family to Puerto Rico fleeing from the lack of freedoms imposed by Castroism and from there she went to Miami in search of a better world.

She never returned to her island. On one occasion she explained why she did not return: “I will not return as long as Castroism continues to rule and people cannot live in freedom“.

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