Doppelganger's Mom

 

I have a doppelganger of my father who died 44 years ago in Florida. My doppelganger lives in my French village with his aging mother.

Over the years we've become chatting friends, smiling friends. At first, he thought I was strange telling him he was identical to my father until I showed him a photo of my dad. My doppelganger's mother, who was sitting at the same café table, agreed with me.

Over the years we have talked more. She was part of the Retirada. In January 1939 Barcelonan Republicans lost to Franco. Many decided it was better to become refugees and began the trek across the Pyrenees to France despite the freezing weather.

Argelès with a population of just under 3,000 people was totally unprepared for an invasion of 100,000 leftist Spanish Republicans. The French built a concentration camp along the Mediterranean. Barbed wire came before shelter. For years the story was hidden, but in the last two decades people's stories from 1939 have been told.

Today, the doppelganger takes care of his Mom.* She is close to 100 with her full faculties. However, since the winter she has needed a wheelchair to come to her favorite tea room in the village which he pushes from their home a tiny trip compared to the one in 1939. She and her son chat with each other, friends, who are all more the son's age or even younger.

Her French does have a Catalan flavor to it.

Much of the world doesn't know about the Retirada. That included one high school friend who went on to get his Ph.D. in the Spanish Civil War. Now the history has been captured in stories, photos, art work and museums. 

This almost 100-year old woman has given me an opportunity to touch and feel history. I can't help but wonder if years into the future the story of Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine refugees will be told as the Retirada has now. 

What I wonder more, have we learned nothing since 1939.

*Note: To read what the doppelganger's Mom went thru go to Argelers concentration camp - Wikipedia