Her story.

My friend Dulce was a very happy woman. Already in her 60's she was doing very well with her children and husband. A fervent Catholic, she attended Sunday Mass and belonged to church groups.

That's where I met her, in a Bible study assistance group. The priest of the church, very charismatic, was the one who taught and he always sent us homework assignments. We were a group of four people.

My honorary lifelong sister, whom I met when I was a teenager, a doctor colleague who was my chief of service when I became an interim doctor in the pediatrics service and my dear Dulce, very charismatic, with a strong character, but very empathetic with the oppressed.

We saw each other once a week, did our homework, the 3 pm rosary, the chaplet of mercy and we would read the verses related to the theme that the priest gave us, all a gift from the Lord.

But it was there that I learned her story. My friend Dulce lived with her husband and two children, a girl and a boy. Her girl had ideas of joining a religious institute and the boy had a Japanese girlfriend who worked in a transnational company here in Venezuela.

One day her husband had chest pains and suddenly died, she was devastated. He was the love of her life. Two or three years later, her daughter decides to go to Spain and she moves there and on the other hand, her son marries his Japanese girlfriend.

Venezuela is going through government problems and the Japanese company sends an order to withdraw all its branches in my country, because the authority of the government is anarchic and the only things done are what the government decrees.

The Japanese girl has to leave and so she goes with her husband, that is, my friend's son. They are waiting for the conditions in Venezuela to change so they can return here... But they don't change.

Four years have passed since they left and things have gone from bad to worse. The country is no longer a government but a dictatorial republic. This is how we have been living for more than 20 years and nothing changes for the better.

My friend, after having a family of 4 people together, was left alone. We were together in our classes until the pandemic separated us. Lack of gasoline prevented us from getting together and everyone was left at home listening to Father's classes on whatsapp.

Now my friend is alone again, but with a lot of prayer at home. Since nothing changes in the country, her daughter who is in Spain leaves the cloister where she congregated and is now in a dependency of the church taking care of the elderly, like the little nuns do.

She talked to her mother who is alone here and convinces her to sell everything and join her in Spain.

My friend is leaving. She leaves just as millions of Venezuelans are doing every day, because they feel alone, helpless. They cannot find a job and they hear others say that in Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay the situation is better for them to work. So they leave, many on foot, in caravans, walking like hitchhikers, they go through the border trails, some even go without papers, thinking that they will find it easier to live.

Many have died in the attempt, many have found a way to survive, many have returned, tired and more disconsolate from the places where they have been. Many are settled in other countries waiting to return to the old Venezuela.

But my friend is going to Spain. She is going with her daughter, they are finally going to be reunited after 4 years without seeing each other personally.

My friend Dulce sold all her possessions. Her apartment, her belongings all acquired during her marriage. Everything she loved in those little details she collected while living with her family in union. Now she is leaving, she is sad because she had to get rid of everything quickly now that the open border allows her to do so.

But on the other hand she is happy. She is leaving and I don't think she will come back. Her daughter is already destined for her surrender to God, her son stayed in Japan and she who was alone will now be with her beloved daughter. She is a lady of almost 70 years old. Now she wants to be calm and I ask God to give her the peace she deserves, for being a good Christian, a good friend, a good companion.

I am glad that she will be reunited with her beloved daughter. I pray that she has a peaceful journey, a very happy reunion and the rest of her life in peace with everything she always wanted, to be with her loved ones.

Farewell my dear sister Dulce, we will see each other on whatsapp.

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