8. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE OF A RELATIVE: (Three compositions - BACHILLERATO 1)

My grandmother Dorotea is a hardworking woman. She also takes care of her family, her most cherished thing. She is always worried about us and trying to do her best.

She married my grandfather, who passed away some years ago due to smoking. They had five children. One of them is my father. The other ones are my three aunts and my uncle, the oldest of them. She has five grandchildren too, three boys and two girls.

When she was a child she was brought up in order to be a “good woman”. My grandmother hasn’t studied because when she was born, the role of a woman was to stay at home taking care of the children cleaning and cooking. At that time machismo was very common.

She always wanted to be a doctor as she loves helping people and assisting  poor people in her city. She was also very interested in science and maths.

                                                                          Anonymous

My grandmother's name is Rosario. She was born in Santander, in 1945, so now she's 69. She was brought up in a modest family. Her father was a carpenter and her mother a housewife. 

My grandmother didn't go to school. When she reached the age of 10, she started to help my great-grandmother with the housework.

She had a brother when she was 11, but he died one year later from a terrible disease.

She continued helping her mother until she was 20, when she started working as a dressmaker at a famous workshop, where she was also taught to paint by Calderón de la Barca, a really famous and good painter. That same year, she met my grandfather and a year later, she was pregnant of my mother, and when my mum was 2, she had twins.

My grandmother lived a dramatic moment when my aunt and uncle were two months, as my grandfather abandoned them, so she had to bring her children up alone.

Since that moment, she worked until the age of 60, but she still paints beautiful paintings and she shows them in exhibitions. 

So to sum up, my grandmother has been a hard-working woman who has dedicated her life to her children.

My grandfather is called Juan. He was born in Seville in 1938. Since the moment he was born, he had to get through lots of problems and difficulties due to the poverty of that time.

His father died when he was six therefore his mother had to bring up four children alone. That is the reason why my grandfather started to work at the age of seven by taking care of a farm. He had known my grandmother since his childhood as they were neighbours.

They had their first son at the ages of 17 and 23. My mom was the second and the last one who was born in Seville since they moved to the north of Spain in order to find a better job so they’d get a better quality of life.

Since that moment, he continued working very hard. At the same time, his family was growing until his children got married and he could retire.

He always tells me how hard life is and that I should appreciate more the efforts which my parents make in order to satisfy my needs.