The Cuban presenter died at 76 years oldon October 13 in a Madrid hospital where she was transferred in critical condition after suffering a stroke due to a second fall at her home in the Argüelles neighborhood in the capital. Ten days earlier she had managed to recover from another spectacular fall from which she was rescued by the firefighters, as she herself recounted in her last television appearance on the program ‘And now Sonsoles’ from Antena 3. «I am very bruised because I spent more than 20 hours on the ground. There was no one. I should have had someone I could call, but I didn’t have anyone. They took me to the hospital in an ambulance, they told me that nothing is broken, but everything hurts,” he said. Nothing suggested that they would be his last words.
His only living direct family; an older sister Georginaan accountant by profession living in Miami, with whom he planned to spend the next Christmas and two stepdaughters, Roxana and Viviana Bercothe result of her husband’s previous marriage, residing in Buenos Aires (Argentina), whom she always loved like sisters more than daughters. “I have never acted as a stepmother, rather I have felt like an older sister,” the presenter said whenever she was asked about her relationship with her husband’s daughters.
They were the ones who raised the alarm when they couldn’t contact her. «without my dad, Mayra She always felt very alone because it was her life. Of course, both her sister and we told her to come to Buenos Aires, but no, here people loved her and there it is not the same. Thus, Roxana settled the controversy about loneliness, apparently voluntary on the part of the presenter, which her family was aware of.
Bureaucracy has been the reason why his mortal remains have remained in the hospital for five days. Forensic Anatomical Institute of Madrid until he received authorization from his sister Georgina through the Spanish consulate in Miami so that his stepdaughters could take charge of the entire funeral process. Unfortunately, due to health problems, Georgina has not been able to travel to Madrid to say goodbye to her sister. «My sister is the only one who did not inherit the family artistic vein, she is a special being. Although she had everything in her favor to have hated me since I was little, she always protected me and celebrated my successes. They never, never bothered him,” Mayra confessed in her memoirs ‘And I can read up to here!’ (Plaza & Janés).
Nor has Viviana been able to travel to the capital to say her last goodbye to Mayra, whom she visited very recently. In charge of all the funerals and paperwork has been Roxana, 68 years old, actress and currently director and teacher of dramatic arts at her Berco Teatro academy in Buenos Aires. The pandemic prevented her and her sister Viviana from saying goodbye to their father, Alberto Bercowho died of cardiac arrest on January 18, 2021, at 91 years of age. That day life stopped for Mayra who, although she tried to continue with her life, could not find meaning in it without him. I lived anchored in the pain and the memory of so many good moments lived.
Mayra Gómez Kermp and her husband Alberto Berco
In 1975, Mayra became pregnant with him in the middle of ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ season at the theater. Inexperience did not make her appreciate that it was a very physical function and she lost the baby. The day after performing a curettage he was back on stage. It took her a long time to recover from the emotional damage, as she herself recounted in her memoirs. Then she gave up motherhood because of her television success and because her husband had fallen into depression and was going to need him. Alberto also sacrificed his prolific career to follow Mayra. It was a pact between both of them. One of the two would follow the one who did better. I have had their contracts and finances for many years.
Immediate crush
They both met in a dubbing studio in Madrid, for her it was an immediate crush, but she was 25 years old and Alberto was 45 years old and that was an insurmountable obstacle for him. Until Mayra, who even lost weight to make him like her more, managed to make her see that they had more in common than they thought. They were both very homely, they avoided great luxuries, they loved movies, cooking and traveling. Their honeymoon was in Greenland and in January 1994 they went around the world aboard the Canberra for three and a half months. Alberto convinced her that the quality of life was in the center and not in the outskirts of Madrid where they tried to convince her to buy a chalet back in the 80s. That duplex in the Argüelles area owned by both of them (she owns 70% and her husband 30% of the value as stated in the simple note of the property registry), data advancing by Luis Pliegodirector of ‘Readings’ is the only thing they had in common, apart from a more than healthy bank account. If Mayra boasted about anything, it was that she had saved for when the lean times came, although she stood up to Chicho Ibanez Serrador because they paid her less than Joaquin Prat -which at that time presented ‘The Right Price’- for being a woman and she secured her retirement by becoming self-employed because some of the jobs she had were not able to be credited to Social Security.
«I had been working since I was 13 when they hired me as a television hostess for a cigarette brand so I could earn a little money and I could afford to say no to some projects. The sacrifices gave me the basis for a financially calm future,” he confessed. Now that inheritance will go into the hands of her sister and her husband’s two daughters because as she herself said “we have always talked about ours, there has been no such thing as yours and mine.”
Historical trajectory
When she received the Iris Lifetime Achievement Award for her historical career in 2013 from her colleagues at the Television Academy, she recognized that her greatest award had been working on what she liked and being successful at it. Although ‘Un, dos, tres’ always stood out from her professional resume, she had other successes such as ‘Luna de Honey’ or as a stand-up comedian in ‘El show de Flo’ and she felt very comfortable becoming a collaborator on Aragón TV and as a guest. to programs. She always considered her sisters Beatriz Carvajal and Fedra Lorente companions from her time in the successful contest and also Luis and Luisa Armenteros and his loved ones Christa and her husband Juanwhom he quotes fondly in his memoirs. She complained about the ‘One, two, three’ wardrobe that made her older than her 35 years and Chicho insisted on differentiating her from the provocative stewardesses. Something that always reproached him.
Eager to learn and a good student
Mayra was always the youngest in her class, eager to learn, had a good memory and studied a lot. Her father raised her like a boy and always made it clear to her that sex was not an impediment to doing whatever she wanted. Something that he always put into practice. In August 1992, in the middle of Hurricane Andrew, he had to fire Veliahis mother, a very popular and beloved actress in the United States. “Despite my age, I experienced a great feeling of orphanhood; the only unconditional love was gone forever,” he said. She managed to face cancer twice, the one that forced her to learn to speak again and no longer be able to eat many of the dishes she liked.
In the worst moments of the illness I have become depressed and rebelled, but I have never taken a pill to lift my spirits. However, in his last interview in ‘El Faro’ Mara Torres in the SER chain announced his retirement. “I want people to remember the Mayra they saw, the one who had almost perfect diction and the one who looked young and beautiful.” This Friday afternoon, colleagues and admirers of the presenter said their last goodbye in a brief three-hour wake at the San Isidro funeral home. His ashes will be scattered in the same place as those of his beloved Alberto, so that they can make their last journey together.
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