The Sevillian artist died on September 7 at the age of 73, a victim of lung cancer that she had kept secret. Tributes to her from her friends and family continue and this Monday it was her sister Isabel who wanted to remember her and reveal some unpublished details about the last day of her life: “He died 10 minutes after his son arrived at the hospital. He waited for Alejandro to die.”
Isabel has visited Sonsoles Ónega on Antena 3: “She knew how sick she was, she was on the verge of leaving several times. She didn’t want to die, but her strength finally gave out.”, has said. And María had already overcome breast cancer and another throat cancer. “María was brave, she was strong and she never cried. She was aware of everything but she never complained,” she said. He accompanied her throughout her life and was her main support, especially in her last weeks: “We knew he was leaving her and I spent all my time with her. I was able to say goodbye to her.”
The strongest blow was the death of his daughter Rocío17 years old, in a traffic accident: “It sank her, she never recovered from that. It took her more than two years to raise her head a little. She came to Seville with me and the child. She took refuge in Alejandro, who was boy, and in his friends, who had many,” Isabel said. “She didn’t talk about the girl and asked me to put flowers for her, she couldn’t.”
That tragedy united her again Pepe Sanchofrom whom she was already separated: “Damn the time she crossed paths with Pepe. I’m sorry she endured what she endured. On the same day of the wedding, he gave her the first slap. He did not separate because he wanted to give his son a family, he did not want to ‘take away’ the father from his son but that was a sin of living.” And he revealed: “He threatened me on the phone: he told me that he was going to come to my house to shoot me twice. If he does that today, he goes to jail. He was violent and liked to beat you psychologically. She endured it because she was very in love with her and he cried the hardest for her to forgive him.