I just found out about the death of Pepe Fernández. Now everything is silence and desolation. The feeling crowds my soul, which more than entering concrete memories became an aroma that fills my being, but before letting myself be carried away by it, I want to remind you that it was for me: optimistic realism, courage, initiative and integrity.
Don José Fernández Álvarez was a native of Gijón, a worthy heir to his father, who owned a historic printing press on the Calzada. After completing his studies, he immediately undertook and innovated in a field other than the family one. He devoted himself to earthmoving with a small company that grew little by little, which later became one of the mainstays in the construction of Ensidesa-Gijón and which finally spread to all fields of work. He ended up being, without leaving his great specialization in the land, a great builder who broadened his scope to many other activities in the sector.
His activity was derived from his knowledge and strategic understanding of the matter, which led him to have an efficient, agile company with the right machinery, which allowed him to tackle the most complex tasks, while also knowing how to find the right collaborators for the most massive activities or specialized. This enabled him to build on time, with quality and at the right prices. He had a reputation in the sector as serious, compliant and also as a tough and combative antagonist who defended his position, but who dialogued, had humanity, kept his word and respected his agreements. He was loyal and his word: golden.
Personally, I saw it that way, he did not make false promises, he defended his position and fulfilled his commitments. That is why his company became a large group. For this he earned the respect of many. And that’s why I also create friends because, when the work is done, talking about life, many of us allow ourselves to be won over by his nobility and his great soul.
Soul that led him to have many hobbies and to be a cultured and integrated member of his Society. He participated in various social and cultural activities, from the Corode la Calzada, without forgetting his football: I remember his player’s license, he was almost a child, for him IV Barrios children’s tournament, in the 51-52 season at the Sports Club Matchstick. To football; he remained linked all his life both as a player and in his role as manager.
I am not going to talk about his role (important and historical in my opinion) in Sporting, but I will remember that his virtues (intelligence, courage, rationality and daring) together with his love for that Sporting were vital so that it did not disappear.
I remember that at the time of his move to a Limited Company in which everyone talked and gave their opinion about what had to be done but nobody did anything, he risked, made and gambled his money. Later he worked and fought in more attacks: without him Sporting would probably have sunk because in this life the solutions come from doing, not from talking.
That love for Sporting also extended to the rest, which is why I heard many sensible proposals from him in matters that affected Asturias. Among them I remember another saving action of his: at the end of the 1990s, the Asturian Center in Madrid went through a critical situation that brought it to the brink of closure. He and Don Gregorio Olalla led a rescue operation that helped President Cosme Sordo. They held many meetings, implemented a strategy, designed legal support and finally managed to get quite a few Asturians to put up some non-refundable money to lift the unbearable debt.
The Center is also here thanks to him.
But above objectivity for me Pepe is feeling. I began to know him in the “third times” after finishing the long, hard and boring discussions about some works. I discovered his silent sense of humor, his listening, his brilliant counterpoints like lightning, his knowing how to eat, drink and debate without haste, his way of enjoying cigars… Later I discovered his kindness, his ability to help quietly and without fuss, your generosity.
Finally I felt so involved that I have a photo, for me already historic, looking at us in the auction of a Sevillana.
I end by remembering his best team, the one he formed with Nory who, together with his three children, is one of the most harmonious symphonies I know.
As I am one of those who believe that we live in a digital universe and that physical health is only the appearance of some beings whose self remains in the “cloud, I will continue chatting with him and I will continue to see the smile that I see now.
And in the future our beings will come down, I don’t know in what form, from the cloud and we will wrap ourselves in the clouds of smoke from two cigars that we will smoke as a duo.
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