According to his mother, Jaume C. Pons Alorda was like this: “He never touched a ball.”

PalmHe was born on November 22, 1984, at eight months gestation, and before arriving home (first in Inca and, a few years later, in Caimari) he had to spend almost a month in an incubator. His mother remembers those moments with sadness: "After four or five days I went back to work so I could enjoy my maternity leave when the baby was home," she notes. It was just before Christmas that year that the family was able to properly welcome their son. The son, who was so tiny it was almost pitiful, is the writer, poet, translator, and contributor to this weekly publication, Jaume C. Pons AlordaHis mother, Teresa Alorda, tells us about him. Six years later, she had her second daughter, Gloria.

Even today, with some surprise, Teresa says that Jaume's premature birth didn't cause him any problems: "He was walking after a year. And, knowing him, you'd never guess it, but learning to talk took him a little longer; he couldn't quite put his head together properly. But he did manage it once, just once. It's true he wasn't much of an eater either, which sometimes caused them a bit of worry: "We tried to make him what he liked: fried eggs with chips, breaded vegetables, battered vegetables..."

His mother remembers him as a "quiet," "happy," and very "homebody" child: "He liked being at home, with friends, but at home. He didn't really like going anywhere. When he was little, the house was full of Playmobil and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; he would play alone and 'it didn't bother him.' He also loved to swim: 'Whenever the weather was nice, we'd go to the beach.' And this happened both in Mallorca and Menorca, since Jaume's father is from Ciutadella, and they would spend a few weeks there, especially in the summers. According to his mother, Jaume was interested in books from a young age: 'When he couldn't read yet, he would look at comics, he would entertain himself by looking for Waldo. Soon, we bought him the Asterix and Obelix collection.'"

Jaume hardly went to nursery school, but since his mother was a teacher and his father also worked, a family friend looked after him for a while. The first day of school, at age three, arrived. And Teresa remembers it well: "He was happy, and when he came back we asked him how it had gone. He replied that it was fine, and we started talking about the next day. He was shocked: 'Oh! I have to go back tomorrow?' he asked." Jaume must have thought that day at school had been like a field trip.

From those early years at school, Teresa also mentions an occasion when a teacher he had before starting primary school, who is from Selva, told her quite clearly: "Jaime will be a humanities student." "Certainly, he didn't enjoy doing math, and from a young age he said he wanted to study languages. I thought perhaps he would change his mind, but he didn't: in the end he studied English Philology." As a student, Jaume was very diligent: "He never went to school without doing his homework." In fact, it was in secondary school that the family realized he liked to write, because he always participated in short story and narrative competitions. He also developed a great interest in film. Teresa says she is deeply proud of Jaume: "He's a very good person. You can talk to him about anything; he's like an encyclopedia. Even politics, which has never interested him much. You know how to talk to him. He's cheerful, chatty, and open. We've always talked a lot: sharing things. Now that he lives in Barcelona, ​​we talk on the phone, but we can spend an hour or so on the phone! We always hang up saying, 'Oh, we've solved the world's problems!'"