Before I Was Born

Before I was born

For the last 25 years of my life I have not been able to quite understand the relationship between my parents or how their relationship was when they were dating. From an early age, both put me in difficult situations where I had to pick one side, hers or his. This was really uncomfortable for me. My grandma on my father’s side used to say that they are totally different people. My mom is a very active, happy, relaxed, witty, hard-working and religious person. She almost never gets worried about anything, no matter what. Sometimes people wonder how she copes with her problems with a smile on her face. Her secret is that when there is a problem she prays to el Cristo de Alanje, believing that he will take care of everything. I do not really share her beliefs; however, I do respect them. One of her favorite things to do is going to visit her neighbors after she comes back from work. That is why she is hardly ever at home. My grandma says to people when they come over to visit her, “If you are looking for Enelda, go and knock on the neighbor’s door”. On the other hand, my father is very quiet, shy, serious, knowledgeable, and a homebody. He loves to read books about outer space, science and religion. He watches the news on television every day. They are both good people and parents in their own way, and raised me the best they could.

My parents divorced months before I was born. I never got the chance to see us together as a family, which I think is a shame. In my early childhood, I was never curious about why my parents were not living together. I guess inside me this was normal because growing up I never saw them together. However, their relationship never causes a negative impact in my relationship with each of them.

Right after the divorce my dad moved 6 hours away from home to another state. He worked in Chiquita Banana Fruit Company were he earned good money. I used to see him twice a year during...