My first years of life, I spent them at my maternal grandmother Leonides' house, there I lived with my parents and my siblings, she had some sayings :
"we are poor, but with values", " If you don't want to be professionals, it doesn't matter, learn the art and be the best at what you do" or a comment she made about my great uncle Emilio: "My brother was the treasurer of the National Land Institute and he never stole a coin". I was a very little girl, only four years old, although I did not understand what he was saying, I always grew up thinking about those comments.
When I was six years old, a long awaited visit arrived, my last brother was born and they named him Simon. He was beautiful, white as snow, with big brown eyes and straight yellow hair that looked like strands of gold. My two brothers and I had a lot of fun playing with him.
A few months later, my parents decided that we had to move, so my mother went out with me to look for a rental, she worked in the library of the República Argentina School, on the way to the stagecoach, we met the teacher Hilda, who worked in the same school, talking to her, my mother made the comment that she was looking for a house to rent, she replied:
" woman, I have an unoccupied house, it is on Monagas street, very close to the school, if you want I can rent it to you...".
My mother replied: "Sure, how can we get you to give me the key?
The teacher suggested: "Let's go to my house to get the key, so you can move in this week", so we left in search of the key. Back home my mother was very happy, when she arrived she met my father, she told him everything that had happened to her and said:
"look for a van so we can move immediately". When he went out to the street my father saw Mr. Pablo, our neighbor, he was Italian, tall, with a thin build from so much smoking, so white that the sun reddened his skin, he was seventy years old, he loved my father as if he were his oldest son, he told the old man the situation, the neighbor without hesitation took out of his pocket the key to the van. Dad with other neighbors began to load our things to make the move.
My grandmother was very sad, because we were leaving, she was used to the noise we made playing with our toys, but at the same time she talked to my mother:
"Margarita, it hurts me very much that you are leaving with your family, but I understand, it is necessary for you to live alone, he who moves God helps him".
As she said these words, my mother hugged her and said,
"Mom, I will always be watching over you, even if it's only twice a week I will come to visit you."
They made several trips, carrying our things, in the last one, we left with our luggage, my father, my mother and a son of Mr. Pablo, who would take the van back home, driving they fell into a hole, plasssh , causing the back rubber to explode, booom, thank God they had a spare, there they took about two hours fixing the fault, until they finished and we continued our route, it was the longest night of our lives. When we arrived, I really liked the house, the facade was very old like those in the historic center of the city, entering, I realized that to the right there was rubble, to the left there were some bags of cement, small piles of sand and gravel, the house was under construction. In spite of everything it had three bedrooms, the first one for my parents and the baby, the second one for me, and the third one for my other two brothers, followed by the kitchen, the bathroom and the patio, it was a very cool house, however for me it was a big shock, since I lived so many years in my grandmother's house.
The first weekend we spent in the new house, I was playing with my siblings and some kids who live nearby, suddenly I felt very thirsty, I went to the kitchen looking for water to refresh myself from the heat, when my mother saw me, she noticed that my mouth was swollen, she was very worried, she took her purse, went to the yard where my father was fixing some pipes, she told him:
" Stay with the children, I am going to take the girl to the hospital".
At the health center, my mother explained the event to the media, she said that we lived in a house under construction where there was a lot of sand and cement, the doctor diagnosed:
"what makes you react on your skin is the cement dust", they put me on an antiallergic.
When I got home, I wanted to continue having fun, so I asked my mother for permission to play at the neighbor's house, my mother gave me permission, but she spoke to me:
"You can go over there, but if you see, a wallet full of money or gold dust on the table, don't touch it because it is not yours", I answered affirmatively with my head, but deep inside I cried out "another tip for my mind".
We lived in that house for 3 years, then my paternal grandmother Carmen bought a house very close to the house of my grandmother Leonides, to which we moved, it was even smaller than the other one, it had only two rooms, a living room, a bathroom and a huge patio. By this time it was already bigger, because of the distance we moved to a school closer to the house, for me it was another emotional blow, since I had my group of classmates. By that time I was at least nine years old, my mother used to send me alone to run errands to the bodega, she always told me:
"Before crossing the street look to the right and to the left, that the car does not come, then cross the road".
"If you are walking and you find a wallet full of bills on the ground, grab it, it's yours.
"If you did something bad, or very bad, tell me, I won't hit you, if you don't tell me and I find out somewhere else, I'll beat you up for sure". When we were going to school he would whisper to us:
"Study, because the only inheritance we are going to leave you is your studies, so that tomorrow you will know how to defend yourselves". These things gave me a lot of security and confidence in my mother, so I always told her everything I did, whether it was good or bad.
We stayed living in that small house, we visited grandmother Leonides every night, her face shining with joy when she saw us again. My father, with time, bought construction materials, made extensions to our home, three additional bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living room, an uncluttered kitchen.
So we grew up in that space, my grandmother's advice, my mother's advice and reflecting on my father's work, we became men and I became a woman. My father is no longer physically with us, but we follow the guidance he gave us, some professional and others not, but the important thing is that we are the best at what we do.
I got married, I have my two daughters and grandson, the same teachings that he gave, I give them every day to my daughters, to form them as women with values and good manners.
