Once upon a time there were two Masquefine girls who went to kindergarten and each one had their first book to learn to read. It was the fifties. Montserrat had inherited it from her older sister and Carme, from her brother. Two similar but different syllabaries. Carme wanted her friend's book, but Montserrat didn't want to exchange it for a toy. She only agreed to lend it to him for a few days. “Montserrat, I'm very sorry, I went out to the window and I dropped the book downstairs, at the blacksmith's house – where there was a fire to shoe the horses – and it burned.” You guessed it, of course, the book appeared safe and sound in Carme's wallet.
As a child, Carme Junyent already had a weakness for books; then by languages. This anecdote and many others were heard last Saturday at the farewell event held in Masquefa. By her express wish, there was no applause from her and her assistants left with one of her books under her arm. Members of her family, friends, colleagues from the university and GELA intervened... no gender split appeared. On stage, a photo of Carme at age five, with a pencil in her hand; Her luminous and mischievous look already revealed her vocation for teaching. And her motto: “Living together without giving up diversity.”
New words were added to each intervention to describe her: wise woman, coherent, determined, feminist, storyteller, with a privileged memory, stubborn, intelligent, lucid, the best Lloro en el quinta de Navidad, tireless, creative, she didn't want charges , temperamental, defender of minority languages, generous, eclectic, curious, rooted in her people with universal interests. And her most repeated adjectives: free and brave.
The journalist Marta Vives gave voice to the letter that Junyent left written as a farewell. With this advice: "Don't waste time, don't leave pending issues." And immediately afterwards the five hundred people who filled the room clapped (not applauded) to the rhythm of the music of Masquefa's Passada de festa major. At the moment of death we celebrate the joy of a full life.
