Sad day for King Juan Carlos: his memory of the Infanta Pilar from Abu Dhabi

On a day like today, two years ago, Infanta Pilar lost her life in Madrid as a result of colon cancer that she had suffered for a long time. Family and friends stopped by her house from the Puerta de Hierro urbanization to pay their respects in the burning chapel that was erected there, including Kings Felipe and Letizia.

It was not until the end of January when it was celebrated a funeral mass in her name in the basilica of El Escorial, to which more than 500 people also attended to say goodbye to one of the most beloved members of the monarchy.

A little over a month later, the statement was made public in which King Felipe disassociated himself from his father’s financial operations, renouncing his inheritance and even withdrew the budget allocation to Don Juan Carlos I.

The summer of the same year it was announced that the emeritus moved to the United Arab Emirates until his complicated situation with the Treasury was regulated, and there it continues since then.

King Juan Carlos I was very close to his sister Pilar. He was her main support when she became widowed, and although it did not transcend public opinion, it is known that they were left to eat every week when the emeritus agenda allowed it.

Today, it’s up to him to remember it more than 7,500 kilometers away, without the possibility of going to visit her at the Madrid cemetery of San Isidro where her mortal remains rest along with those of her husband, Luis Gómez-Acebo.

King Juan Carlos at the wake of the Infanta Pilar.

Although last year they wanted to organize a mass in honor of the Infanta Pilar in the first anniversary of his death, the coronavirus pandemic and the storm Filomena that buried Madrid under several inches of snow forced repeatedly cancel the ceremony, and in the end it never took place.

It seems that this year no special honor will take place either on behalf of the Infanta Pilar and even if that was the case, it is most likely that his brother, Don Juan Carlos, would not have been able to attend. For now his return to Spain is looming far away, although some voices insisted that he would return for this past Christmas.