Australians ringside as Spain takes a beating

Melburnian Mark Carter was standing outside a funeral home in Barcelona when he was ­approached by police.

Tayla Stephenson in lockdown on the rooftop terrace of her Barcelona unit. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Melburnian Mark Carter was standing outside a funeral home in Barcelona when he was ­approached by police.

Holding a bag containing the ashes of his 66-year-old mother, Beverley, who had been cremated that morning, Mr Carter was grieving. It was just days after the coronavirus lockdown had begun on March 14 and he had gone to the funeral home to farewell his mother, who had died of breast cancer. When he arrived, staff told him that because they were dealing with the pandemic, his mother had already been cremated.

“They said ‘Sorry, she was done earlier this morning’ and just handed me a bag, which had her ashes,’’ he told The Australian.

Police stopped him as he was trying to flag a taxi. “It was a very bad week,’’ Mr Carter, 36, said.

The Spanish lockdown is one of the harshest in Europe and was ­extended on Sunday until April 26, although the slowing rate of deaths gives the residents — and the Australians living there — hope they will be allowed outside by the end of the month. Spain has had 16,972 deaths.

Mr Carter is still in Barcelona trying to work his way through paperwork in an unfamiliar language to get his mother’s death certificate. Originally from Adelaide, she had been living in Barcelona for the past few years. He had rushed to the city from South America, where he had been travelling, as soon as his mother told him of her terminal diagnosis in mid-February.

To pass the time, he is learning to play a didgeridoo, practising on the balcony of his mother’s central Barcelona unit.

“I would really like to walk by the water and get some fresh air, but we aren’t allowed out,’’ he said.

Another Australian, Tayla Stephenson from the Gold Coast, was settling in for a ski break with friends in Andorra when they ­received a text message telling them to evacuate because of the virus. Ms Stephenson, 24, went back to the tiny one-bedroom Barcelona flat she had just moved into.

Mark Carter plays his didgeridoo to pass the time. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

She had landed a job with an Amazon subsidiary and was to begin training. Instead, she has found herself confined to the flat on conference calls.

The isolation crackdown in Barcelona is particularly fierce, although this week construction workers have been allowed back to work. Shops other than supermarkets and food stores remain closed.

Mr Carter said there were three police checkpoints between his flat and a market 300m away, with officers ensuring only one visit a day. People are not allowed out for exercise and the police are using mobile phone location data to check on movements.

Ms Stephenson said she fell foul of the police in the early days of the lockdown because she did not realise going out for a walk was banned. “I was sent home with a report against me,’’ she said.

Unlike Mr Carter, who has only his balcony for outside space, Ms Stephenson has been allowed to use her block’s rooftop terrace. She and Mr Carter did not know each other but have been put in contact by The Australian to give each other some moral support.

Ms Stephenson believes she may have had the coronavirus. In the days after her ski trip, she had a sore throat, headaches and sore muscles, but she hasn’t been tested so is unsure.

Despite the hardships, she says she feels fortunate to be in Spain with a job, as the company she formerly worked for on the Gold Coast has gone out of business and her mother has lost her job at Coolangatta Airport.

“The elderly and those with underlying conditions should be isolated and stay home, but it’s ­important to get the young and healthy back to work,’’ she said.

Mr Carter says he will probably stay in Barcelona even when the lockdown is lifted to sort out his mother’s estate. “I’ve got to work out what to do,’’ he says.