Upon finishing her training as a nurse, Doña Fabiola began work in a hospital in Madrid. The good relation of both the Mora y Aragóns and the Belgian Royal Family with the Spanish Royal Family in exile, allowed the meeting between the bachelor King of the Belgians and the pious Spanish noblewoman. Their relation was carried in the most absolute secret, while the King kept being related with various princesses. It is said, though, that when the King’s brother Prince Albert married Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria the King had already demanded Doña Fabiola in marriage and she had accepted.
The King and the Queen’s lives were marked by the sadness of not having had children. Although it is related the Queen had several miscarriages, only one is sure, since when the Queen was pregnant the sovereigns went to the Vatican and were received in state by Pope John XXIII, who promised to be godfather of the child. Misfortune made it that the Queen would loose her baby and never be able to give birth to the much-awaited heir. Unlike possibly expected, this sad fate strengthened the relation between the King and the Queen, and Their Majesties always said that the Belgians were their children, all of them.
The Queen’s activities, apart of the state ones which she carried with the King, were much devoted to the social needs. In 1992, Queen Fabiola and Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, chaired a meeting of 70 First Ladies who had come to speak in favour of the adoption of the Geneva Convention on the Advancement of Women in Rural Areas. Later, already after the death of her husband, in 1994, she also chaired, this time in Brussels, a meeting designed to assess the results of the implementation of the "Geneva Declaration".
Ever since, Fabiola has kept playing a major part in the Belgian Royal Family and has devoted her time to rally for causes dear to her heart and to her late husband’s. The Spanish noblewomen, who became the Belgian Queen, is loved by her adopted country for her hard work and fastidious diligence to her dear family. She presides over the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium and is honorary president of the King Baudouin Foundation, which aims at improving the living conditions of the population.
