In Honor of Vladimir Goncharov

Good morning.

Dear friends and colleagues,

As many of you will speak about Vladimir as the great Mathematician that he was, I would prefer to emphasize what a wonderful friend he was to me.

When we were together, we usually talked about three things: two that we both loved – travels and literature – and one that upset us – politics.

There was one other topic that Vladimir spoke of with enormous passion: his mother.

When I visited his native city of Irkutsk, his mother was away on holidays with him, as they usually did each Summer, but they organized everything so that I could be confortable enough in the hands of a dear friend of them, Olga. But I did have a chance to meet his mother when she came to Portugal the following year. I took them to Arrábida – that she loved – Sesimbra and Sintra, where we talked about Boris Pasternak, whose poetry Vladimir admired.

I wish I would be able to talk directly to his mother, but unfortunately we don’t have a comum language. I’m sure Vladimir would have loved if we would. And we would talk about him, as we are talking now. And as long as we talk about Vladimir, he will not die.

Évora, November 30, 2018

Dulce Gomes