Dear family,
We did not want this month of August to pass by - a month which we will all remember with great sadness - without sending you a few words of encouragement as well as leaving you, the family of the man who has been our boss, our guide and our teacher, with an affectionate memento. We would like these words to serve as a heartfelt tribute, also intended for his other great families: the Internal Medicine Service of the Virgen de la Victoria University Hospital, the University of Malaga and the Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis.
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to spend so much time with him recognise and appreciate that they bear a deep and indelible mark of a very special human being who has run his Service, taught his subjects and led his research group with intelligence, elegance and the very best of criteria; also with great dedication and generosity (he always had time for those of us who sought his opinion, help and, in bad times, had comforting words and encouragement). In his great sense of humour ("You needn’t shed any blood…", "beating yourself up is definitely not on…", "we've seen better days…", "we just have to keep pedalling…", "research is a dish cooked very slowly…"), along with his excellent judgment, we always found a suitable and encouraging answer.
The patients and those of us who learned by experiencing and reading his stories, were lucky enough to come across a great clinician who always demonstrated his interest in solving the problem posed and raising the standard of the Service, with his constant stimulus for improvement, inseparable from research. We will always remember how he backed many of his diagnoses and treatment decisions with precise bibliographical references; and his impetus to publish the results. The knowledge of the opinion and the difficulties encountered by his patients also led him to take a personal interest, and to interest us in rare diseases, as well as contacting and promoting various patient associations. We received continuous expressions of gratitude for his interest, which materialised, with great personal effort, into various different projects and trials; generously attending to the demands of these.
We have also witnessed a great teacher, in Dr Valdivielso, an institution in our Faculty of Medicine; who his students stopped to greet and be photographed with when he walked with his family along Calle de Larios. It was not surprising, therefore, that his classes, which he taught with great thoroughness and ability to synthesize, were enlivened with content that sought to contribute to the all-round training of the students. On the virtual campus of General Pathology, along with the files of his classes, we can find links to a wide variety of subjects: a video of an outstanding student who studied the specialty in another country, and to masterpieces of music: “Verdi. Rigoleto: if you want to enter the world of opera, there’s nothing like this work by Verdi, Rigoletto - these are not to be missed. There are thousands of versions on the internet, however I’ve chosen this one for its cast, with Kraus at the head. Put it on in the background and enjoy it.” In this way he introduced works by Beethoven, Mahler or Handel; without missing out the Gaudeamus igitur: in universal version and rumbas.
As the researcher in charge of IBIMA (Malaga Institute for Biomedical Research and Platform for Nanomedicine), we were able to appreciate his ability to formulate original and relevant questions, the result of extraordinary curiosity and sagacity; also, to summon up our willingness to get involved in very diverse projects, while seeking, at the same time, to develop the potential of each of his collaborators. He always encouraged us through his example as a tireless worker on an always arduous task, thankless on many occasions, but rewarded with the enormous satisfaction of the original discovery and its dissemination. For this last task, he was well aware of the relevance of communicating the findings in the field of lipids and arteriosclerosis in Spanish; continuously supporting the Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis journal. We remember his delight at the successive achievements of the journal and how, due to his extensive knowledge and prodigious memory, he endeavoured to detect any gap or appropriate citation in Clínica e Investigación en Arteriosclerosis.
We are left with his example as an excellent boss, clinician, teacher and researcher; also as a person with integrity and goodness, who encouraged us to continue the work and legacy of our head and director of the Department, Professor Pedro González Santos, We shall follow his well-directed path, which we must all contribute to, continuing to develop it in his honour.
We would not like to conclude without thanking all those who have expressed to us their heartfelt sorrow over such a huge loss; as well as the notes of remembrance from the head of the Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis, Professor Carlos Guijarro, and from our friend, Dr Ángel Brea, at a time when none of us was in a position to express our gratitude to Professor Pedro Valdivielso Felices with such heartfelt and beautiful words.
With a heartfelt embrace,
María José Ariza Corbo, María José Benítez Toledo, Juan Luis Carrillo Linares, Inmaculada Coca Prieto, María Diaz Infante, Javier Espíldora Hernández, Natalia García Casares, José Rioja Villodres and Miguel Ángel Sánchez Chaparro.