Ramón Gómez lives on a second floor without a lift on Calle Pare Llaurador in Terrassa, and both going down and up is like climbing Everest. He has been suffering from muscular atrophy since 2010 which has left him unable to use a leg, his limbs are full of tremors and every day he is weaker. “I don’t have the definitive diagnosis, it could be ALS… They were about to do two operations on my legs, but I suffered a stroke and everything was paralyzed. And then the pandemic came and my deterioration got worse”, he explains. At the end of October, he has a hospital appointment for a biopsy to refine the diagnosis.
At just 23 years old, he moved from Pont de Suert, where he was born, to Sabadell, where he already started working because of his desire to be independent and because he came from a family of eleven siblings, with an economy fair Aged 70, Ramón, retired, has dedicated 40 years of his life to working in the hospitality sector (he managed two restaurants) and defines himself as “a very active and restless person. I have always worked in front of the public and I really liked it.”
He had a peculiar hobby: he got to participate in ten contests and television programs; “they amused me”, he remembers. But, after suffering various personal hardships, his health and finances deteriorated. A good friend, Carme, has given her a room in her flat in Terrassa, but “getting up and down is being an odyssey. A few months ago, thanks to the dependency law, I was paid 300 euros for an assistant to pick me up and drop me off. The first one already took its toll due to the physical effort, since sometimes I had to carry heavy weights because my legs don’t work”, he admits, sadly, “and even though I don’t weigh much, it’s a big effort for anyone. And I hate being a burden”, he regrets.
The current carer, Laura, helps him on Fridays and Saturdays, but the rest of the daily activities – grooming, combing, washing, etc. – are done by him, as best he can. He has recently financed, with the income from his pension, the transformation of the bathtub into an adapted shower tray, where the wheelchair can enter.
As a result of this work relationship, Laura’s husband, Juan Solano, a burly 29-year-old Dominican, has volunteered to be her carrier to take him out on the street. He is his sherpa on this particular Everest. “When I met him, I immediately empathized with him. If I’m not working I come when I can, once or twice a week, because Ramón, here, is cloistered and suffering”, he underlines.
Juan assures that they have created a family bond: “I come with my son, who loves him very much, and sometimes he invites the three of us to lunch… He is a great person, but these stairs are a wall”. indicates
Until this guardian angel appeared, Ramón had gone weeks without setting foot on the street, where he is fully autonomous with his motorized wheelchair. “I have asked for a meeting with the mayor of Terrassa and, through social services, I am signed up to get a flat with a room, with official protection. I don’t want to be given anything. I could pay the rent, with the help of the dependency law (which is only for me to go up and down the stairs), but I’ve been waiting for years, and nothing”, he regrets.
The only thing he got from the Council is “a bench in front of the house so I can sit when the ambulance comes”. “I asked for it with armrests so I could stand up, but they didn’t put that on me either,” he assumes, resigned.
