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The family
New beginnings are never easy, but you trust in them and fight to make them work. When I started the process of moving my place of residence to Mallorca I did it in a very naïve way. With two children, one of them newly born, and myself recently divorced, I had only one goal: to make Can Ramonet our home.
Maya
My first daughter, Maya, was born in Alaró on 19 August 1996, in the middle of the Sant Roc festivities. She was born at eight o’clock in the morning and by eleven o’clock I was calling all my relatives to explain that we were already one more in the family. In fact, she was a baby who at first had no name, her father didn’t want her to be named after the Mayan bee, but I was insistent.
During all this time my mother kept asking me if her granddaughter had a name, she was anxious to tell Germany that she was already a grandmother, but announcing that you have a granddaughter but she doesn’t have a name at the moment… was not her thing. And there she was, day in and day out, asking for her granddaughter’s longed-for name.
In the end I opted for Maya, it’s such a beautiful name. In Hindu mythology, for some people Maya is the mother goddess or the creator and for others she is the goddess of appearance and illusion. Although the choice of that name was a matter of destiny.
Let me explain: when I was young, I didn’t want to be a mother under any circumstances, it wasn’t in my plans. But I loved reading, I could spend weeks in Alaró reading. And in one of those, I read one that inspired me, and I asked myself: why not become a mother? The thing is that eight years after the baby was born, I picked up that book again and I was amazed: the main character of that book was called Maya. And I had no memory of it. Believe me, fate exists.
I had the good fortune to get pregnant very quickly. I was very clear that I wanted to have my daughter in Mallorca, so I came to the island 15 days before my due date. Today this would be impossible, now there is more security for both the baby and the mother. When I arrived at the clinic where the baby was due to be born and saw a tiled floor from top to bottom and a metal chair, I said: I don’t have my daughter in this environment. And as I am not very adventurous, I started to look for a doctor right then and there to help me have the birth at home. 15 days before my due date.
I remember the night of 18 August with laughter, because that night in Alaró there is a party known as Flower Power. I was very tired: it was the day I was due, it was also the first day I had met with the doctor and the midwife who were going to help me with the birth, yes, the same day I was due, you know how I am. I wanted to sleep, so I drank a glass of warm milk with honey – I recommend it to all mothers-to-be because they give birth to fantastic children – and I lay down on the bed, but my tummy hurt a lot. Between us, I thought it was gas.
My midwife told me that if they were false contractions they would go away in the bath. And there I sat, tired and pissed off, waiting for it to go away while Yellow Submarine by The Beatles was playing in the background. Everyone was partying there, I guess that’s why Maya wanted to go out. After three hours of half lying like a whale in the bathtub and seeing that the contractions didn’t stop, I said: ‘they won’t go away, what should I do? So I called the doctor. He arrived at six o’clock and by eight o’clock I had Maya in my arms.
I have enjoyed spending time with my daughter, without family or friends telling you how to do things. With Maya I learned little by little what it’s like to be a mother. In Germany I had the full equipment of a new mother: pram, umbrella, bag to carry bottles or packages, her hat… But of course, I wanted to have Maya in Mallorca and I couldn’t bring it with me. I improvised, and what an adventure, I rolled her up in some sheets that were around the house and went out for dinner in the village. It was all very natural and calm. I really enjoyed that year with my daughter.
Yannis
I said earlier that the Tina of the past didn’t consider having children. When I finally decided to embark on the adventure of becoming a mother, I told myself that I only wanted a girl. Actually, my calculations had been going great. But in less than a year I became pregnant with my second son, Yannis.
With him in my belly I went through the whole process of looking for a suitable property for the family to grow. In fact, he was born two days after the second signature to acquire Can Ramonet. Shortly after having Yannis, I got divorced, but that little blonde ball brought a lot of joy to the house.
I remember how the three of us lived in the little house that had just been refurbished, it was very pretty, very cosy, but there was no electricity. When the sun went down, you couldn’t see anything at all. Everything was very dark, we lived with a generator, and when it broke, the children would hold a candle in their hands and I would fix it. We didn’t even have a barrier for the house. Normally I would have felt lonely, but on the contrary, I felt at peace with my two babies and my dogs.
I am very lucky to have my two children, they have always given me the strength to keep fighting and together we have got to where we are today. Of course, we have not been alone along the way and I can assure you that it has been a lot of fun.
I said earlier that the Tina of the past didn’t consider having children. When I finally decided to embark on the adventure of becoming a mother, I told myself that I only wanted a girl. Actually, my calculations had been going great. But in less than a year I became pregnant with my second son, Yannis.
With him in my belly I went through the whole process of looking for a suitable property for the family to grow. In fact, he was born two days after the second signature to acquire Can Ramonet. Shortly after having Yannis, I got divorced, but that little blonde ball brought a lot of joy to the house.
I remember how the three of us lived in the little house that had just been refurbished, it was very pretty, very cosy, but there was no electricity. When the sun went down, you couldn’t see anything at all. Everything was very dark, we lived with a generator, and when it broke, the children would hold a candle in their hands and I would fix it. We didn’t even have a barrier for the house. Normally I would have felt lonely, but on the contrary, I felt at peace with my two babies and my dogs.
Good and bad times
Not everything was easy. Mallorcans are used to spending the weekend with their families, especially on Sundays, eating together, having coffee, spending the afternoon with a board game… On the island I didn’t have anyone, just my children. In Germany I had a friend with a the same age as my children. I could meet up with her and make different plans together, but she wasn’t in Mallorca. There were many moments when I asked myself: ‘What am I doing here?’, I was going seasonally, it wasn’t all pretty, I’m not going to lie to you. Now I think about it and thank goodness I didn’t give up.
At the same time, I saw my children happy at home and that made me happy. They played with anything they could find in the countryside, and I put a little kitchen in the garden where they played for hours and hours, always naked, of course. In fact, when they met up with friends to play, I always tried to dress them up a bit and as soon as I lost track of them, they had already taken off their clothes. Childish things, and even more so if they grow up in the countryside. I don’t know if it’s because of that, but I remember that when they were little they didn’t get very sick.
The other members of the family, our pets
It was really my dream, when I was still living in Germany, to have a donkey at home that could wave at me through the window. I almost made it. My first two companions who followed me all over Mallorca were my Great Dane, Pamela and the Pomeranian, Mickey.
In 1998 I already had two donkeys, given to me for my birthday: a mother and her baby, little Lisa is still with us. A year later, we started to keep a very unusual breed of dog on the island, the Irish Wolfhounds, which may impress by their enormous size, but they are very friendly and gentle animals.
Little by little the family was growing, and I was delighted of course. I went to the Mercat de Sineu for a walk. Out of curiosity, I asked what the ponies were worth. For the male they asked 120.000 pesetas and 150.000 pesetas for the female, it was a lot. I decided to go all the way around the market and at about one o’clock in the afternoon I passed by again, they were still there. I made a proposal to the seller: ‘what do you ask me if I take a couple? And he told me that for 150,000 I could have a couple. I laughed, because a couple of hours ago he had asked me the same for the female. He even brought them home. In fact, my master builder who was still working at Can Ramonet got angry because I had charged him more.
The story of the ponies doesn’t end here, a friend of mine also wanted to have one and we went back to the mercat. We visited the same man I bought the ponies from the first time. And to no one’s surprise, I fell in love with another couple. My friend, as she already knew me, wanted to offer me one more, as she knew I wasn’t going to say no for an answer… The point is that I went back to Can Ramonet with three new members, five ponies in total.
In this house there are also pigs. The first one we had was little Püppi, a Mallorcan pig given to me by a friend in Sineu. That day I was also walking through the market and a German friend of mine needed an electric fence for his animals and the seller, being Mallorcan, didn’t understand him, so I helped him by translating the conversation. A while later, my friend came back with a small pig and said to me: ‘Thank you for your help’. I was in the middle of Sineu with a baby pig in my arms. I brought her home, and put a harness on her, it wasn’t easy, really. She was loose all over the place, and she was growing very, very fast, but she was very docile.
I remember that the bricklayers who still worked in my house were afraid of Püppi, not surprisingly, he weighed around 300 kilos. But I would go to call him with a carrot in my hand and he would follow me behind very happily with his ears jumping up and down.
Then Cinderella came into the family, who was also given to me by some Mallorcans whom I honestly didn’t know. They asked me if I wanted her, my answer as always was: Yes, and when I realised I had a little pig in my arms again. At first she was so small, the size of a rabbit, that I put her in the bathtub for the first three weeks. She showered with me and everything. Then she was out living with the dogs. We also had Lucy, who was not wanted by people we knew and we took her in so that she could have a home. Cinderella and Lucy were not really friends but they managed to live together.
The good fortune of having a family in Mallorca
It is fortunate that the place where you live gives you peace and quiet. I am also referring to the children, because I really believe that Mallorca is a safe place where your children can go to play and socialise without having to worry all the time. Also, on the island, children are welcome everywhere, if you go to any place, restaurant, wherever, the adults pay attention to the little ones.
In Germany it’s not like that, there children have to be quiet, they can’t disturb the grown-ups. In the end, to want them to be like that is to mould them to a personality that doesn’t allow them to experiment or be free. Being able to experience all this has been the result of a lot of effort and hard work that has allowed us to grow with my company.
In Mallorca I could also highlight the environment, the nature, the animals, the air you breathe… And even more so if you live in a countryside like us, where you can only hear the birds and our animals. Living here is a gift.