LOVE ON LOCKDOWN

Gemma Vasquez, 31, from Port Talbot, Wales, went looking for a Spanish teacher...and found a husband. But there was one big catch.

- KATIE PEARSON & HANNAH CROCKER

Sitting at home in front of my laptop, I logged onto my Facebook account. When I saw the message icon flashing at the top of the page, I felt a pang of excitement.

I can’t believe she got back to me, I thought.

Since lockdown hit in July 2020, I’d been stuck at home in Glasgow, and with my family all the way back in Port Talbot, I felt lonely.

So, I’d decided to take up a new language. I already knew Welsh and a bit of French, and I wanted to give Spanish a go.

I’d joined a Facebook languages group and messaged a lady I saw on there.

It was a stab in the dark, but I wrote her a message in my best Spanish, to see if she’d be willing to help me.

When she replied, I was thrilled. Her name was Maria, and our chats helped me while away the lockdown boredom.

Months passed, and as my Spanish improved with our regular Zoom calls, we started to become friends, too.

Maria, 52, was a lovely lady – living in Washington D.C., I found out she was married and had three sons.

Her eldest son, Leonel, was the same age as me, and she told me he was the only one of her children who could speak fluent Spanish.

It piqued my interest.

‘What does he do?’ I asked in Spanish, over one of our calls.

‘He’s actually in prison in Virginia,’ she explained.

When she told me he was serving a 20-year sentence for rape, my jaw dropped.

Leonel, known as Leo, had been incarcerated at the Buckingham Correctional Center since December 2011 – nearly a decade.