La carta que llegó tarde (The letter that arrived late)
MCER B1242 palabras
In March a letter arrived at my parents' house with a stamp from 1986 and my grandmother's name on it. Nobody in the post office could explain where it had been for thirty-eight years.
My grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it. It was two pages long and it was from her sister, who had emigrated to Switzerland and who died even earlier, in 2004. The letter said that the winter had been hard, that the factory was closing, and that she was thinking of coming home in the summer.
She never came home. The two sisters wrote to each other for years and then, at some point in the late eighties, they stopped. Nobody in my family knows why, and now there is nobody left to ask.
My father read the letter twice and then he did something I did not expect: he photocopied it and sent a copy to his cousin in Zurich, the son of the woman who wrote it. His cousin phoned four days later. They had not spoken since a funeral in 1998.
They now talk on the first Sunday of every month. My father is seventy-three and his cousin is sixty-nine, and neither of them has said a word about why the two sisters stopped writing. My father says it does not matter any more, and that the letter arrived exactly when it was useful, which is not the same as arriving on time.
Palabras que quizá no conozcas
- stampsello
- post officeoficina de correos
- to emigrateemigrar
- to photocopyfotocopiar
- funeralfuneral, entierro
- on timepuntual, a tiempo
Preguntas
Se contestan con el texto delante. No es memoria: es entender.
The letter had a stamp from ___.
1986 — A stamp from 1986, y nadie en correos sabe explicar dónde ha estado treinta y ocho años.
Why did the writer's father open the letter?
Because his mother, to whom it was addressed, had died — Hay que juntar dos frases: la carta iba a nombre de la abuela, y la abuela murió en 2011. El SO de «my grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it» es la costura.
The woman who wrote the letter came home that summer.
False — Falso: en la carta dice que lo está PENSANDO, y el párrafo siguiente empieza con «she never came home». Pensar no es hacer.
What did the father do that surprised the writer?
He sent a copy of the letter to his cousin in Zurich — La fotocopió y se la mandó al hijo de la mujer que la escribió. Cuatro días después, el primo llamó.
How long had the two cousins gone without speaking?
About twenty-six years — El texto no da los años: hay que restar. No se hablaban desde un funeral en 1998 y la carta llega en marzo de este año, treinta y ocho años después de 1986, o sea 2024. De 1998 a 2024 van veintiséis.
What does the father mean by 'it arrived when it was useful, which is not the same as on time'?
That the letter was late, but it did something good anyway — Separa dos ideas que solemos confundir: puntual y útil. Llegó tarde para las dos hermanas, que ya han muerto, y a tiempo para los dos primos, que ahora hablan todos los meses.