My maternal grandfather was the coachman of the Milà family, the owners of La Pedrera. Years later, after horse-drawn carriages became obsolete, he learnt to drive and became a chauffeur.

My grandparents lived in La Pedrera, on the ground floor next to the concierge's office. To my knowledge, my grandparents were the first people to live there, because the service staff moved in before any of the tenants arrived. There was my grandfather and the mechanic, who maintained the boilers, and their respective families. My maternal grandmother also lived there, but she later died in an accident. It happened one day when she had taken the service lift up to the roof to hang the laundry out. Because building work was still going on, or perhaps it was due to a lack of safety regulations, the lift had no doors, and while she was taking the laundry basket out of the service lift, it starting moving and killed her. As you can imagine, I was told this, because I never met my great-grandmother.

At the age of 19, my mother, Pepita, married my father Lluís, who was the chauffeur of Mr Antonio Feliu, a textile manufacturer who lived in the same building. Mr Feliu lived alone, but like other people who could afford it at that time, he had a chauffeur, maid, servant, cook and housekeeper.

After my parents got married, my grandparents gave them the dwelling and moved to another place. That’s how I came to be born in La Pedrera. We moved out of the building when my mother opened up a shop in the Sant Antoni district, although we continued to visit it for years after...