Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Chametla
Chametla
I hate that place. Every time I go to La Paz, to Chametla to see my mama, Delia, I come away feeling lost and ashamed and useless. This last time was
worse because my brother, Augustine, who said he would go, cancelled at the last minute, said he had to work. Who doesn’t have to work? It’s a long
day. A long hot drive to El Centenario to the hospital where she stays. I leave Santiago when it’s still dark so I can get back the same day.
When I say “I hate that place” I mean I hate going there. They are good people there. They take good care of her; better than I could. They make her
walk and exercise a little. I know she would never do that for me and I would probably never think of trying it. They explained to us that the food
sometimes can’t taste as good as people want but because of the high diabetes rate for Mexicans, they have to balance the good for you food with the
food that tastes good. I’ve seen some of the food and it doesn’t look bad. They keep her clean and quiet – she wears my new robe when I come. I have
to call to let them know I’m coming so I don’t know if she puts on the robe or if they put it on before I show up. I brought her my old radio and they
turn it on for her, find a station with old, old music. I keep forgetting to stop at El Segundo to replace it – I miss it sometimes in the dark on the
patio and Flora and the kids like to listen all day.
Sometimes she knows me. I can feel it, the way she pats my hand, smiles at me. I know there’s some kind of connection there. They say her silence
might be because she has forgotten parts of language, of speech. It is impossible to tell what she has forgotten, what she still remembers. After the
old man died, Augustine and I seemed to be even more wrapped up in our own worlds, our own problems, families, jobs. We didn’t do much. We could have
done a lot more. Maybe for mama this is a good time to be forgetting how things were. I try to forget. But I can’t. Now I think of the things we
should have done for her.
At Chametla, when I last signed in, the book showed my sobrina, Carla, had come down from Loreto a month ago to visit with mama. I wonder if mama
remembers her nieces. I will drag Augustin’s butt up here on my next trip no matter what he says. Maybe, maybe with both of us here again it might
make a little spark of memory for her – to see us together again, side by side. Just a little spark. Just a little glimpse. It might mean the world to
her. I’ll get some flowers. Maybe they’ll allow her a little candy from San Bartolo.
It’s her own fault. All of this. She should have had girls like her sister.
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6364
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
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Mood: TEQUILA!
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Really a great one, Jorge. Highly appropriate for this weekend. Really makes me sad even for my own mama, whom I just bought an electric wheel chair
so she would not fall any longer while walking.
Your story, be it real or fictional, is a real heart-string puller, buddy!
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3326
Registered: 12-13-2002
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Mood: Mellow
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Beautiful Jorge....wait just a second while I wipe away a tear....
Palabras bonitas......++Ken++
carpe diem!
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Paula
Super Nomad
Posts: 2219
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: Loreto
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..." It might mean the world to her."...
Yes, and it might also mean the world to him...
Beautiful, Osprey.
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dtbushpilot
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3294
Registered: 1-11-2007
Location: Buena Vista BCS
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Mood: Tranquilo
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Thanks Jorge, gave me goose bumps and a little tear.
I miss my mom.......dt
"Life is tough".....It's even tougher if you're stupid.....
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Debra
Super Nomad
Posts: 2101
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
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Thanks.......I just lost my Mom and it felt good, and bad to go back ."there"
Mean people suck!
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lingililingili
Nomad
Posts: 449
Registered: 2-24-2008
Location: La Paz, Bahia Asuncion
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I like to think that Delia knows who you are, she just can't say the words "como estas mi hijo". Fiction or non, thanks. You brought back memories
of my mom I lost 24 years ago.
•Life is just one damned thing after another
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Most of my stories are fiction and I like to think they are made more plausible because I do a lot of reasearch. On this story I found a 2003 Health
Report for Baja Sur (International Community Foundation) indicating a stunning rate of suicide here: per 100,000 inhabitants here causes of death are:
1, Heart disease 67.6, 2. Tumors 62.1, 3. Diabetes 38.2 and 4. Suicide 35.9. It may be paradise for us but for many it can be a hopeless place with no
escape hatch.
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