She was the eldest child in an upper class family from Tortosa. However, when Pilar was still very young the family had to abandon their life in Spain due to the civil war. Pilar was 12 years old when her father was forced to emigrate to Colombia with his wife and two children. Her mother did not acclimatize well to their new life and ultimately the marriage came to an end. Pilar moved to France with her mother whilst her father remained in Colombia with her brother. Her father would never return to Spain as he died in South America.

As the war came to an end, Pilar and her mother returned to Tortosa and she found work in a local institute as an English teacher. She had mastered the English language as well as French and Italian. Pilar inherited her father's intelligence and a very special intuition for issues related to law or medicine, subjects in which she had taught herself.

In 1946, she got married and relocated to Barcelona but she eventually separated from her husband and they had no children. Her capacity for work was first demonstrated in a law firm, and once again years later in the big department store, Sears, where she held the position of Director's Secretary until her retirement. She left a good impression on her colleagues due to her competence, attention to detail, good communication and fairness. In addition, she is remembered for her ties to the UGT, for her love of negotiations and her capacity to always find a point of agreement.

She never let go of her home town, where she bought an apartment, and she would often visit to be with her mother. However, when her mother fell ill she brought her to live in Barcelona, in order to take care of her. She also travelled frequently to Colombia to visit her father and on one such journey she returned with Eduardo López Ayala, a young family friend whom she cared for. Eduardo lived with Pilar until she died from a heart attack aged 71.