Yesterday I was shocked by a story that, between the festivities, the getaways to the beaches and the well-deserved vacations, could go unnoticed. But it has overwhelmed me.
On Tuesday, a toy boat with a baby arrived on the Spanish coast without its parents, who had a fever and was hungry. A girl of a few months, who does not reach one year of age. That patera was probably his first toy.
Other adults accompanied the baby and explained that, at the time of boarding the boat, in an incident with the Moroccan gendarmes and between parents the parents decided to put the baby in the toy boat.
Would they go up immediately and in the confusion the boat left? Did you think the baby's destiny was better elsewhere even without them? I can't imagine what could happen for such a small baby to end up without his parents in the patera.
But they are not strange cases, those of people who put their lives in danger looking for a better future, such as pregnant women. It is surprising that in each patera that arrives in Spain, it is commented that there was a certain number of women waiting for a baby. Bring a life anywhere, except where I live ...
Surely this girl, who refuses to put a name waiting for her parents to claim her but is already popularly known as "Princess," has known what real toys are now, at the Red Cross or with her volunteer caregivers. But on the other side of the strait there will be parents who have lost their baby and hopefully he can meet again soon.
Hopefully no child knows what it is to separate from their parents, neither in this nor in other circumstances. But above all, I hope they find a happy childhood whose first toy is not a patera. And, incidentally, an encouraging future that does not make parents run away risking everything.
