This is the third time that I will dedicate an article to Gema Marín Granados. This is something that hasn’t happened to anyone else. In fact, I consider it a privilege, because it gave me the opportunity to observe the exciting ups, downs and progress of an epic life. The first text was published in 2011 and the next in 2013, both following two letters Gema sent me. I will summarize her story: in 2002, at just 28 years old, this beautiful music teacher from Malaga fell ill with Parkinson’s disease. It is often believed that Parkinson’s disease is a disease that affects very old people and causes the body to shake. But this cruel neurological and degenerative disease can not only strike people as young as Gema, but the hardest part to bear is not the tremors, but the rigidity. Suddenly your body disconnects, to the point that sufferers call it being on or be disabled. and be disabled It’s a living death, or worse than that. It’s “falling into a black hole, both psychologically and physically…, we remain stiff, as if we were made of wood”. To this, we must also add the side effects of medications, which on the other hand are essential. It’s slow, relentless, constant torture.
In these two articles, she tells how Gema, after going through the first ordeal of accepting the catastrophe that happened to her (that obsessive why me, why me that torments you when such misfortune hits you) pulled herself together to lose neither her young existence nor her joy of living. She had a son already diagnosed and continued to work as a music teacher. And he discovered this music, and forced himself to dance when he was disabledhelped her a lot to cope with her illness. Quite an observation which also corroborated a study published at the time in the journal Nature. It turns out that Parkinson’s disease is caused by a deficiency in dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure. And the study showed that listening to music can generate surges of dopamine. Anyway, in the 2013 article I said that Gema posted her dance videos on the internet (all filmed while she was in disabled) in case they could help someone, and that the University of Malaga was carrying out neurological tests to investigate the process. At that time, he was 39 years old and had suffered from the disease for 11 years.
I never heard from her again. Often, when someone mentioned Parkinson’s disease, I remembered its luminous struggle and, with that accommodating optimism that characterizes us humans, I imagined it big, that is to say as big as it managed to be. A few days ago I received a new letter from you and we spoke on the phone. And yes, it’s great, but how hard real life is, unspeakably hard. Shortly after this second article, Gema received a pump to continuously dispense medication; The problem is that it is very difficult to get the exact dose. The side effects of medications are serious; Mood swings, addictive syndromes… For example, you can become a gambling addict who ruins himself while playing. Gema started buying things (“me, who has always been very careful with money”). His condition was getting worse; The apathy was enormous. He had to stop teaching and also abandoned his networks. Five years ago, she found herself in a wheelchair and spent a few years stuck there. Anyone else would have given up: don’t we say, and it’s true, that Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disease? Well, that’s all, anyone would conclude; It escalated to the point of me being pinned to this chair. But not Géma. Gema refused. He forced himself to get up despite the pain. He put on his headphones and turned on the music. And it moved.
It’s still been running for two years (she is a member of a table tennis club and plays there every Tuesday). He has better adjusted the medication dosage and continues to use the superpower of music. He always has his helmet around his neck, and when he realizes that he is going to enter disabled (which happens about three times a day, each time lasting between one and three hours), he lets himself be lulled, soaked, intoxicated, relaxed and moved by the cascade of notes. And try to be happy and laugh a lot. All this saves. All this constitutes a life, a beautiful life. He is 51 years old and now wants to write a book telling all this. In case it helps anyone. It works for all of us, I would say. She’s my heroine.
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