I was in Barcelona to attend Mr. Carreras' recital at the Palau de la Musica on April 21 1996. I had a meeting afterwards with the maestro to hand over to him a donation from the Foundation Dutch Friends of José Carreras. We also wanted to give him a typical Dutch present. As it was no time for tulips anymore, our choice was licorice (or as we call it: 'drop').

In a special store we found a big plastic heart, the back of which was Passion-red! We had the heart filled up with licorice and ended up at almost two-and-a-half kilo! Meeting the maestro makes one nervous, having to present him such a present.....
After the recital I was brought to a special room, where I met the entire family, including his father, who was just recovered from a serious illness. I talked to Mrs. Prunera , Mr. Carreras' first singing teacher (with Mr. Carreras' sister translating from Catalan to English and back) and she wrote some very nice words in my program book. Then it was my time to see Mr. Carreras. I handed over the heart, and he acted as if he was taking over something very heavy. He laughed and said: "My goodness, that is enough to last till the end of my career. But it is very good for my voice!" I answered that I hoped his career would last much longer then the candy would. Then we talked about ten minutes about all kind of things. He signed my booklet and noticed what Mrs. Prunera had written. He looked up and said: "It is such a sweet lady. I love her very much!"

My 'licorice' adventure had a funny ending, a few months later. January 1997 Mr. Carreras gave a recital at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. During the encores I was, with many other fans, standing near the small stairs he had to come down from to leave the stage. At one moment he saw me, came up to me, shook my hand and said, with a big smile: "Hey, hello! The lady of the drrrrop!"

He turned around and went up to the stage again.