Goucho's story: the nonagenarian who got his last wish

A nonagenarian man admitted to a hospital in Catalonia asked a family acquaintance for one last sip of orujo, and the man brought him a 5 cl bottle of Panizo aguardiente. The story, told after his death, blends affection for an elderly man with the question of how far hospital rules can be bent.

The man had been a magazine editor in Barcelona. In his nineties, he had been hospitalized for months, with weeks to go thanks to stomach washes and liquid meals, and a total dependence that had tied him to a wheelchair before he entered the hospital. His visitor came from Asturias, juggling the trips with work. The last time he saw him, the man could barely tell reality from fiction. Even so, he recognized him and asked a favor: one last sip of orujo before dying.

## A 5 cl aguardiente bought at a gourmet shop

The visitor walked several streets until he found a gourmet shop. He bought a **5 cl** bottle of **Panizo** brand aguardiente, a small format meant not to attract attention. The scene has its complications: in a hospital, any alcoholic drink clashes directly with the treatment and with the judgment of the medical staff. The story does not hide that the decision was made outside that judgment.

The justification given by the author of the anecdote himself is that the man had no more than **six months** to live and that no treatment was going to change the outcome. It is a personal assessment, not a medical prognosis. Healthcare professionals are the ones who assess each case, and overriding their instructions can have consequences. The story is told from affection, not from medicine.

## A life of children, women and calendars

Goucho had several children with different women at a time when that was not illegal but was scandalous. Before that he had been a magazine editor in Barcelona. He gave the young man who visited him a ship in a bottle and a harmonica for his First Communion, and years later calendars with photos of ladies in their underwear and assorted love advice. He took him to cafés with waitresses and chatted with him.

The relationship was lost after secondary school, when the man was already in a wheelchair and depended on his family. It was resumed in **January of this year**, when they were notified of his admission. The author of the story says that seeing a cheerful, healthy old man, despite his age and vices, turned into a patient with red eyes, a respirator and a weight of **40 kilos** affected him deeply.

## The farewell came a week ago

A relative of Goucho recently passed through the author's village, which was on his way, and told him how the old man was doing. A week ago, the man died. Upon finding out, the visitor's mind went back to the afternoons they shared and the memories: how at **60** he flirted with his mother, who was then **20**, and with his aunt, who was **30** and was his daughter-in-law, and with several girls from the village. The girls' boyfriends would look annoyed as they passed, he says.

The conclusion he draws from all this is that the elderly should be cared for, even if deep down you don't really like them. They had to put up with the kids in times when abandoning a child with his mother was not a crime. The story does not ask for the bottle on the hospital bedside table to be repeated. It asks that we accompany those who can no longer go out on their own.