Farewell words of his family at his funeral on March 16, 2013

Farewells are always difficult, especially in the case of someone very close, much loved.

In spite of the grief we feel today, our feeling as his family is that of gratitude for a fulfilled life and for all the years we were able to share.

He faced and lived success and fame in the same way in which he faced and overcame adversity; without excesses or excitement in fame and without rage or resentment in adversity.

I remember that once, at one of the toughest times during his persecution, when everything seemed without remedy (at least for me), he took me by the arm and smiling led me to one of his several piles of papers from where he produced a poem: “If” by Rudyard Kipling.

I especially remember some of the lines:

" If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance of their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And –which is more—you´ll be a Man, my son!”

He loved his country, and staked himself for it without second thoughts at extremely difficult times and even at the risk of his own life. And in this, his wife, his lifelong companion, our mother, was his support, the column without which he could not have made it, the column of the family.

He endured sickness and confinement with dignity and fortitude; we never heard him utter a word of complain.

This is the testimony he left to us, who had the privilege of being his children: a fulfilled life; a life that regardless of the debate that his public office and ideas generated, and the defects he had- as any of us- stood up for his principles and ideals and lived consistently with them:

. with courage and fortitude;
. perseverance and tenacity;
. vocation for service and personal commitment;
. sacrifice without any kind of resentment; and above all
. honesty