Good morning.

I have the honor of opening a round of words to remember our beloved Pep. This meeting is presided over by a common spirit. Driven by a need we've postponed until today, in consideration of finding the opportune moment for the family to be ready to hear again the voices of friends and colleagues who miss him.

The need today is to find in our shared experience with Pep a place for consultation, inspiration, vitality, and rest, a source of comfort in the face of the difficulties we are experiencing. From necessity that their absence opens a space for reference. For the sake of example.
Since 1979, when I met Josep Clusa at the Psychiatry Service of the Hospital de Sant Pau and the Mental Institute of the Holy Cross, he has been a role model for me. A role model for many of the colleagues and friends who are here today, gathered around the experience of having known him.
When I began my training at "the Mental," as we called the Santa Cruz Mental Institute, I needed some time to understand many of the things that were happening inside. One of these was, in an interview where I was serving as an observer, deciphering his interested and "astonished" expression when a patient was explaining what I understood to be a "delusion." I had the impression that I was missing something. The patient had been there for about 15, 20, or 30 years, but Pep had the ability to listen to him with a renewed interest, as if for the first time, the patient were communicating something that was actually happening to him. It took me a while to learn to shake off my psychiatric tics and to let myself be amazed by each patient. That's why He will be my master.
Afterward, I followed him for a while as he worked as the coordinator of the Santa Cecilia team (a women's ward). Then, to learn about his musical and artistic interests in relation to patient recovery. I remember he ceremoniously introduced me to Maestro Udina, a pianist and composer who had been admitted to the Mental [Hospital] many years prior, and of whom Pep hoped to get a piano in good condition for him to play. Maestro Udina, some time later, composed a lullaby for my son and dedicated it to him.
And then I observed him in the political controversies of the moment. The claim for an SM network that he fought for. Assemblies at the Mental, at Sant Pau hospital, his criteria for institutional policy. In the clinical sessions, I learned to observe how he built and developed his technical judgment. These are some of the things I learned from him.
A few years later, we met again at the Section of Psychiatrists of the College of Physicians. He was the president, and when his term ended, he nominated me for the presidency of the section. He helped me, opening contacts with the president of the College, with the secretary, always so attentive. And some time later, when I proposed the idea of the First Catalan Congress of Mental Health to the College of Physicians, and that an organization like the Foundation could emerge from it, he asked me by the elevator what its name would be. I stammered, "I don't know... it would be the Foundation for Mental Health," and he replied... "like the Congress of Catalan Culture..." Fundació Congrés Català ... de SM. Yes, yes. That. That was in 1997 or 1999.
And the Foundation, which would not have been possible without the work of many, is now 15 years old. Pep was President for eight years, before and after me. This succession at so many moments, this being close, makes his presence, his legacy, particularly vivid to me. I recognize here colleagues from each era, each moment, each stage. Together with all of you, we have made progress.
And you, Pep, will continue to work tirelessly. And you will continue to generously contribute your ideas, your time, your personal connections, nurturing them. Fostering encounters. Catalyzing thought. Not imposing.
Let's see if we'll be able to keep learning from you.