As Federico Goded told me:
It was for me a very pleasant surprise to read the interview that Angie Bach made to my admired Evelio Puig-Doria. If anyone deserves a separate chapter in this world of bridge is Evelio. As a player, as a friend and above all as a person. ”
From my long memory there are only few memories more pleasant than those that I have shared with my admired Evelio-Puig Doria in the 1994 Fall in Seattle.
Evelio was the captain, the entertainer, the organizer and the translator. He was not good in English but managed that people talk to him in Catalan. It never ceased to amaze us with some ups and downs in the bridge table or that peculiar way of sharpening the most trivial thing to make it look important.
I could not stop laughing in all the 15 days. On the eve of return and as a gift for a successful impasse he led me to Washington state’s largest toy store and said:
– How old is your daughter Alejandra?
– Fifteen months. She is not that high …
– Then choose a much bigger bear than her. So she will have a friend much longer.
We left the toy store with a panda toy bigger than myself.
We traveled around the world with the toy at our side, occupying a seat and sticking it out of the windows so the bear could recognize the European shores. How to forget it?
For many years the bear was the constant companion of my two younger daughters. Today Alejandra is an astrophysics and Leticia a philologist.
That one year old girl now operates a telescope and works on a project to search for life in other galaxies.
The Panda bear, a bit run down by hugs received for so many years, remains in her room, and knows a lot about planets and literature.
Each time one of my daughters comes back home, embraces him and communicates him the news…even before talking with their father. There are priorities.