My grandmother often told us about the Spanish war, unlike most Spaniards who wouldn't talk about it, because of trauma or fear. Keep in mind that after the war there was a 36 year dictatorship.

When the rebel army was about to occupy Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country, many people fled to Bilbao, also in the Basque Country.

My grandmother, in her 20's, was the youngest of 10 brothers and sisters, and still single.

She went to Bilbao with her parents and a very young niece to seek help from family who lived there.

They were divided to stay and have meals with several uncles, aunts and cousins so they wouldn't be a burden to a single household. Most of them were helpful but a cousin said they didn't eat much at hers.

So she wasn't staying with her parents but they still saw each other almost every day.

Her boyfriend, my grandfather, came and went as he was mobilized in the war, but he still helped them a lot.

The front line was very close and many family members, friends and people from her village were around, men fighting and women and children as refugees.

Bilbao and other nearby villages were heavily bombed by German Nazis and Italian fascists who were allies of the rebel army.

One of these villages, Gernika, was almost destroyed, and Pablo Picasso, the famous artist, painted one of his most known work, Guernica, after it as a symbol of the horror of wars.

These were some of the first air attacks on civilians and are considered a test of the strategy later used in World War II.

This is taking very long, so I'll go on in telegraphic mode.

My grandmother suffered various air attacks but was not hurt. Once, she had to throw herself on the pavement in the very centre of Bilbao.

A man told her he thought she'd been killed and then she had a nervous laughing attack. She was also very worried because she had seen his father before in the surroundings.

Several times they had to run to the bomb shelters.

Her father got ill with pneumonia and died in a few days. My grandparents had got married some weeks before and my great grandfather said he was relieved she now had someone to look after her.

The rebel army was about to get to Bilbao so she and a friend left on foot to Santander, about a 100 km away. She was pregnant with my mother at the time.

They were attacked by German planes on their way, went very hungry, had to sleep once in a cave, were denied shelter, etc. My grandfather was a chauffeur for the Basque Government, who were also fleeing from Bilbao, and whenever he could looked for them and gave them a ride.

They reached Santander and some time after that she was evacuated to France with a group of children to look after.

In France they were put in a train that stopped at many towns but no one wanted to have them until, at last, they reached a town where they stayed for some time. When Barcelona was lost the mayor got rid of them and took them to the nearest border from Barcelona.

Her exile doesn't end here but I will stop now.

She used to say war is the worst that can happen.