In October 2024, Eva Bargiela went through one of the most painful moments of her life: the sudden death of her mother during a family trip. Since then, the model and presenter has found various ways to navigate the absence and keep her memory alive through small objects and everyday scenes.
During a chat on Qué Alguien le Avise, the La Casa Streaming program, Eva recalled one of those moments that stayed engraved forever. The trigger was a viral video about a young man who had saved some milanesas prepared by his grandmother to preserve the last taste of her cooking.
The conversation led Bargiela to share a much more personal experience. “You know, I’m going to tell you something and I’ll try not to cry. And if I cry, don’t clip it,” she said, between laughter and emotion, before starting her tale.
The jars she found on returning from the trip
Eva explained that, after her mother’s death, they returned home and found something that immediately took on a different meaning.
“My mom had left, as she always did, a bunch of jars of pickled eggplants,” she recalled.
The detail could have been just another one of the things she did, but at that moment the scene hit her in a different way. Especially because, as she said, she had never liked eggplants.
Together with her sister and their dad, Eva felt that those jars seemed to have been left there as if their mom had anticipated they would return.
“We said: ‘It seems she left it all prepared,’ you know?”, she recalled.
And the feeling didn’t end with the jars. Eva said that other travel details were resolved too: “The return tickets, the check-in done, everything, everything, as if she had left everything arranged for us to come back and find that there at home.”
The scene moved her especially because of the idea of returning and finding little traces of someone who was no longer there.
“Well, I don’t like eggplants”
In the midst of a story filled with emotion, there was room for a touch of humor that ended up easing the moment.
Sofía “Jujuy” Jiménez asked Eva whether she had finally eaten the eggplants her mom had left. “No,” she replied.
To the surprise of her colleagues, Bargiela clarified with complete naturalness: “Well, I don’t like eggplants.”
The answer sparked laughter in the panel, especially because Jujuy was expecting a different ending. “I thought the punchline would be something like: ‘Honestly, I tasted them and said: wow, how hadn’t I eaten eggplants before in my life’,” she joked.
But more than the fact that Eva had never tried that brined dish, the memory stayed linked forever to her mother and to that return home after an unexpected loss.
The other object she found and now wants to preserve
The memory of her mom resurfaced again shortly after, when Eva shared another scene that moved her especially.
The day before she had gone to her dad’s house because the power had gone out, and she took the opportunity to go upstairs to fetch some toys for her son Faustino. There she found a space that remains almost intact: the studio where her mom painted.
“My mom painted a lot of things and loved everything; she was super… she had a very artistic side,” she recalled.
Among the objects she found there was a small cup with an inscription that read: “Mom, I love you”.
That image touched a very sensitive fiber in Eva again, who immediately thought of turning it into a personal keepsake. “I said: ‘Oh, I want that to be my Mother’s Day gift,’ which is coming up. So later I’ll ask my dad to see if he can help me get it,” she said.
For her, these objects that remained after her mother’s death now hold a value that goes far beyond the material. They are small ways to feel her presence and to preserve a part of her story.
“When things like that happen and stay with you, what do you do? You take them as a gift,” Eva expressed.
One of her colleagues agreed with that view and noted that it could also be a way to honor her. Eva simply nodded: “Yes.”
Nearly two years after her mother’s death, the model continues to find new ways to talk about her and to transform some of the objects she left into small family treasures. Not because they can replace her absence, but because each one holds a story, a memory and, for Eva, a way to feel her close.
