It once happens to me that when flight there is a time when I think when there are turbulence how it would react if I understood that the plane is falling. Would you send a message that may reach someone already dead? Would you shout, I would panic? Would you try to remember the instructions to put on the life jacket that I never attend? I don't know if it happens to you. The certainty of death has always seemed complicated to manage until suddenly, a 28 March 2025, I could experience that feeling.
I never thought I was going to live a strong earthquake, And much less that two would end up living. In Spain, Where am I, The ground does not tremble. Earthquakes are news things. And 2017, viví el terrible seísmo de Ciudad de México. Aprendí que La Tierra puede zarandearte hasta quitarte el control de tu cuerpo. Cayeron decenas de edificios. Hubo muerte, horror, lágrimas, y supervivencia. Se sobrevive a un fortísimo seísmo. La mayoría lo hacen, pese al dolor por los cientos que no lo hicieron, esa lección fue clave para lo que sucedió ocho años después.
casi a la vez escuché un grito de Francesca que decía “está temblando, está temblando”
Hace casi un mes, to 13 horas yo estaba preparando la comida en Bangkok. Tenía pan descongelándose en el horno, unas salchichas con romero y ajo en la sartén, y otra sartén grande donde freía patatas. De pronto me fijé que The potato oil began to move in a circle. And almost at the same time I heard a cry of Francesca that said “he is trembling, está temblando”.
Everything happened this time very slow. Home, A floor 39, He began to balance from side to side. We start listening to strong metal blows. Doors that collided, things that fell. We listened to the elevator creak. Creak the house. Francesca sat on the ground, It was hard to stand. Your legs are loosen that they do not understand what is happening. I sat beside him. We were in the hallway, Between two rooms with windows that gave north and south. I struggled to look away. The view from our home was very wide. I monitored buildings and cranes, There were many skyscrapers under construction, and I didn't think anything moved. That terrified me.
Francesca and I thought the same. We didn't tell ourselves then, but when he stopped everything. None thought it was an earthquake. Bangkok is not a seismic zone. I did not distinguish the movement of other properties in the distance. We both thought that the problem is that the building was falling apart. We had a building that they were raising attached to ours. And we both believed that the work had affected the foundations of our property and that our skyscrapers were falling. You can save yourself from an earthquake, We learned that eight years before, of a house that begins to collapse no.
We both believed that the work had affected the foundations of our property and that our skyscrapers were falling
Then Francesca began to stir with a deep sadness. I understood that she, like me, I thought we were going to die. You think many things in a short time. It was a very long earthquake, It lasted three minutes. For us it lasted three years, A life, A night of insomnia ... It is incredible all the images that go through your head. I remembered the twin towers, Maybe because I had to move to a New York in five days to which maybe I would never go. Well, I didn't want to go from Bangkok, So maybe I was going out with mine. I thought about running the stairs, in looking for a shelter in the house, in protecting us entering a closet ... and I understood that it was an idiocy, that on the floor 39 of a skyscraper that falls apart there is no option to survive.
I looked at Francesca. And I felt a huge sadness of understanding that she was thinking that this was the end. I hugged her. I kissed her and told her that nothing was going to happen. I did not believe my words, I just wanted them. Or he doubted them, at least, but doubt life is something you are not at all prepared.
The earth did not stop. The blows of the elevators were heard clear. Things continued to fall. And I don't know why, But hugging her suddenly a strange peace. I accepted the possibility of death. I imagined that everything suddenly crumbled. And I thought: “Well, Not so bad. You have had a very good life”. I thought about how I am writing now. I was going without debts.
I suddenly felt a strange peace. I accepted the possibility of death
Suddenly, The tremor under a little. I stood up those seconds and ran to the kitchen to remove everything in the fire. The certain calm lasted little. It was a valley, And the tremor began strong again. And then, finally, From the window of the balcony of the living room I saw a crane of one of the skyscrapers that raised in the distance that moved from side to side. “It is an earthquake, Franci, It is an earthquake. That crane is moving ", I shouted. Because that relieved both. Who was going to tell me that knowing that an earthquake lived was going to be my relief. Francesca also reassured him. The earthquake has rules. An antisismic building endures them. Was our building? It seemed yes. The earthquake we knew. It is not that we did not fear, It was a fear with logic. That the building had a problem in its foundations was a new fear that we could not apply any logic.
We stop thinking that we were going to die. We never said those words. We never express it with words. Our hands spoke, legs, Eyes ... And finally stopped. The house stopped balance. We stood up. I looked out the window. I hoped to see smoke from collapsed buildings everywhere. The city was completely standing. I was pleasantly surprised, I imagined a massacre like the one that happened in Myanmar, Where was the epicenter. Efficiency when building, The works without corruption, save lives. Bangkok was standing, I still don't explain it to me. We go down and go down calm. We find other neighbors evacuating the same route. We didn't run, We walked between jokes.
Think you're going to die, That the person you want most will die there with you, that ends everything, It is very hard and very rare
In the street the scenes were more emotional. There were chaos of cars and people. People with anxiety attacks, Crying, panic faces. A small replica run to everyone in stampede. We were already calm. The earthquake and post earthquake was a known terrain. I think we were a little shock. It was then that we both recognized that we thought we were going to die. Think you're going to die, That the person you want most will die there with you, that ends everything, It is very hard and very rare. I did not feel panic, I felt sorry and a false strange peace, to want the end to be calm and to recognize myself happy in what has already been lived.
The earth trembles and life trembles. Thousands of people died in Myanmar, dozens in bangkok. Thousands of people lose their lives every day due to natural disasters, For diseases, by accidents or violence. We are not victims of anything, Nothing happened to us, We did not do anything special. The other day here in New York a helicopter fell into the river and unfortunately took the life of three children and three adults ahead. Could those people think about something while the device fell? We are born with the certainty that we are going to die, But we don't know when. Let's take advantage while we have the luxury of being able to doubt life.
