VALENCIA. Normality is gradually installed in Valencia. Good proof of this is that in the City of Justice, the magistrate in charge of the Civil Registry has once again started the celebration of civil weddings. This Friday, ten couples said ‘yes I want’. They were the first since the deadlines in Justice were paralyzed on March 14.
The first post-coronavirus marriage was formed by Oscar and Mihaela who, before saying ‘yes, I’ had been together for eleven years as boyfriends. Only his parents have attended the wedding because although the ceremonies are already celebrated, the public restrictions to them are there, because we are still in phase 1, and they have decided to do it in privacy.
At the door of the room where they just joined in marriage, both comment: “SWe are married, but there will be no banquet. When all this alarm state started we decided to suspend everything just in case. We’ll do it in August if we can. “
They explain that the Civil Registry called them to find out if they wanted to continue with the link or postpone it. This couple says that they decided to continue with the initial date because Mihaela is from Romania and “in order to get married we had to request many papers, some of them from the consulate, and we were afraid that they would lose their validity and we would have to start again from the beginning” .
Rafa and Inma
Next to them, waiting for their turn, they are Inma and Rafa. The couple has come with their parents, brothers and nephews, rushing the maximum number of ten people who can be there, although inside the room, only the married couple and the two witnesses will be able to enter.
Like the previous couple, Inma and Rafa were also called from the Civil Registry to ask them what they wanted to do with the wedding. After twelve years as a couple they did not think about it and said they were getting married even though they could not later celebrate it with their friends. “We will,” they say.
For Inma, confinement has not been easy, she explains that she has even had tachycardias because both Rafa and her parents are people at risk and, this wedding it’s the second time they try. “We already lost the first date and we have canceled everything, but having this day we have decided to take the step and get married.” Rafa says, half jokingly: “I have saved money because they gave us back everything we had paid to the classroom.”
Both add that they are wishing that the phases are passed, and all the better, to be able to reunite with the rest of the family and friends to be able, all together, to celebrate their wedding in style.
The Civil Registry
At the door is the official who is calling the different couples waiting there to ask for the necessary documentation. He says that although many couples have decided to cancel the dates they were planning to get married, many others have decided to continue. He explains that ten weddings “is very good, there are many, more considering the panorama”.
While talking to Valencia Plaza, an old woman tries to convince him to let her in to see how a couple gets married. The official very kindly tells him that the room cannot accommodate more people for security reasons, since they are not outdoors. The woman tries again and he lovingly explains the situation to her again. Finally the woman laughs and says, “I had to try,” to which the official smiles back, and replies, “Of course I do, woman.”
The official’s face is happy because the judge with whom he works and he have lived the coronavirus very closely. They were the ones who signed the death certificates of the covid-19 patients every day. The only weddings they have celebrated in the confinement were those known as in article mortisThat is, those that are celebrated because one of the spouses has a terminal illness or very little life expectancy. For this reason, something as common as civil weddings before confinement, this Friday has been a source of joy for all Civil Registry workers. The smiles have finally returned to the City of Justice.
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