Kindness, a story about the Sotogrande community.

Often I am asked by our clients, how is it to live here in Sotogrande, do we live in a community, or is everyone by himself..? I can tell you a story, as it once happened to me, when it really depends on community or neighborly help.

When my son was about 10 years old, we often went out horse riding. On a Sunday afternoon, when we were already on the way back, my horse decided to run off. I lost control over it, and decided to take the emergency exit and throw myself off the horse. Unfortunately, I was not so experienced in this way to leave a horse, and fell on my wrist, which was badly broken by the fall.

A neighbor immediately offered to take care of Nicolas my son, while I had been taken to the hospital, where I was finally operated on the wrist.

I came home a few days later, and meanwhile other neighbors had heard that I was not the one who brought Nicolas to the school bus, but another person. I could not drive a car with one hand, nor was it easy to do much house work or cook. The same day that I was released from hospital, the bell rang at my front door, and another neighbor, with whom I otherwise had little contact, Maria Aurora (known as Cuca, the Notary’s wife) brought us food, since she had heard of my fall.

I will never forget this gesture, I was very moved by this helpfulness.

I could tell several such stories from Sotogrande, where the helpfulness of my neighbors helped me very, very much. 

When you live in a city, where most people live among themselves and quite anonymously, you usually do not experience such gestures. Maybe that’s why Sotogrande means so much to me.

– Stephanie Noll.