The aged in Vigo residences benefit from the lights due to the taxi drivers

They had been ready for this second for days. Some 200 individuals over 15 residences within the Vigo space had their appointment with the Christmas lights marked on the calendar. Thanks to an initiative of town’s taxi drivers, they depart the residence and their typical routine to stroll by way of the streets of Vigo and admire the lighting. A Christmas ornament that makes Vigo the capital of Christmas and that final 12 months closed with greater than 5 million visits.

This initiative started in 2016, however as a result of pandemic the final two years needed to be suspended. This 12 months they had been trying ahead to their Christmas stroll. And the taxi drivers, some dressed for the event in fits and Santa Claus hats, got here punctually to their appointment to select them up on the residences. “It could be very gratifying to see what they take pleasure in. Many don’t depart the residence and for us, who primarily take them to medical doctors in the course of the 12 months, it’s a method of giving them again every thing they offer us”, explains Juan Manuel Alonso, one of many collaborating taxi drivers.

Walk and go to the Christmas tree

After going by way of a number of streets of town, they reached the Puerta del Sol, the place the large tree 35 meters excessive is situated. There one other shock awaited them, the mayor, Abel Caballero, obtained them personally. “It is extraordinary to see the eyes of phantasm of those older individuals. Their eyes flip like youngsters’s once they see the lights, the tree, hearken to the music…”, affirmed the mayor.

The mayor greeted the eldersNIUS

Some with a walker, others in a wheelchair, however all with monumental enthusiasm, they went again in time and loved Christmas like youngsters. “I get excited, a lot gentle dazzles me. See the lights and the mayor and all of the individuals of Vigo”, commented one of many residents. “Precious, from right here to heaven, I like it,” stated one other. For some it was the primary time, others repeated the expertise. “I already noticed them a number of years in the past and I prefer it as a result of it’s one thing totally different and you are feeling that Christmas is coming. When I used to be little, there weren’t these lights, after all”, acknowledged one in all them.

The aged visited the tree at Puerta del SolNIUS

“Thank you”, essentially the most repeated phrase

“Thank you” was the phrase most repeated by the elders, who took photographs in entrance of the tree and in addition with the mayor. A second that they had been additionally capable of take pleasure in with peace of thoughts, as a result of for an hour the realm was closed solely to them. “It’s a method of rewarding the aged for every thing they have been by way of,” commented José Fernandez, one of many collaborating taxi drivers. “It could be very good to do it, particularly to see them, the faces they make. It jogs my memory of my daughter the primary time she noticed Christmas ”, he added.

After a day of intense feelings they returned to the residence. Meanwhile, within the middle of Vigo, the avalanche of individuals continued admiring the Christmas lighting.