Letizia: a year without her great reference marked by a controversial final goodbye

On July 27, 2021, the heart of Menchu ​​Alvarez del Valle stopped hitting while at home in Ribadesella, Asturias. She was 93 years old and carried on her back the weight of the grandmother of the Queen of Spain, as well as a long career as a journalist. Letizia inherited her grandmother’s passion for communication. In fact, her father, Jesús Ortiz, worked for many years in Radio Oviedo’s technical team, as did his daughter and sisters, who spent many afternoons at the Oviedo station as children. She was very close to her for many years, but her absence from the funeral caused both a certain stupor and controversy.

The relationship between Menchu ​​and Letizia has always been very close. The Queen stayed with her grandmother for several seasons in her Asturian home, where she had a room that is now a library. They had an complicity that often made them confidantes. For example, Menchu’s wrist did not tremble when he had to tell Letizia what he thought of her relationship with King Felipe. She wasn’t against it, but it did make her think if she knew what she was giving up by becoming a partner. But her answer was that she was madly in love with Felipe.

One of the proudest moments was knowing that I was a leading role in the wedding of the then princes of Asturiaswhen he read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Some time later, he would participate in other very important family events, such as the baptism of his great-granddaughters Leonor and Sofía, as well as their respective communions.

Menchu ​​lvarez del Valle had always embraced being anonymous and living a discreet life, but her wish began to go awry from the day it became known that her favorite granddaughter would walk down the aisle with the future King of Spain. She recalled in life how a small cultural act at the Casa de la Cultura de Ribadesella became little less than a photo conversation: “I like freedom and intimacy and that was an avalanche of people, of curiosity, of photographers. Besides, it happened in the last year of my husband’s life… And that seemed like a pilgrimage It wasn’t easy It was even said that once a month a helicopter would fly over my house to drop the money my granddaughter gave me gate because they got to the kitchen window,” she remarked, somewhat taken aback.

When Menchu’s heart stopped beating, a deep sadness entered the heart of Doña Letizia, who was in Santiago de Compostela the day before with her family. That was what was said as she never spoke about this matter. Many raised their hands when he was also not present at his funeral, in the cemetery ‘El Carmen’, in the Asturian town of Ribadesella. Her sister Telma was also not present and the last goodbye was given intimately and with few people as she wished.

Queen Letizia’s grandmother gave an interview in life OKDAILY with the condition that it would not be published until after his death and in it he discussed some anecdotes he lived with his granddaughter. For example, the quarrel that both had because of tobacco. Menchu ​​smoked a lot of cigarettes from an early age. In her days as a radio announcer, she was the subject of jokes among her peers about the large amount of tobacco she could consume in one day. She always said it was her vehicle for getting along and that when she gets older “I’m going to feel worse if I quit smoking and I have to die of something.” Letizia forbade him to smokewhile Felipe VI was more moderate and urged him not to be so compulsive.

The journalist was never a woman closely associated with royalty. In the same interview, he talks about his daily life in the Palace: “They live normally. Two or three people are employed. When I go there, the protocols… “‘What do you want, ma’am?'” they tell me. “Well, a coffee, daughter.” “’Do you want me to take you…?’”, he imitated some employees of La Zarzuela. “Talking all this time… I don’t feel like it, what do you want me to tell you?” She was a woman of the street. With that same simplicity, he passed his last breath, with endless anecdotes and left very important people in the world. After all, despite his simplicity, he was a media character.