Grandmother

 When I was about 3 years old my parents left me in Venezuela with my grandmother for about 6 months. I remember she would make me vegetable broths and blend it and made it into a thick soup for me to eat.

I remember in the afternoons she turned on the soap opera & she would take me into her hamick with her. We would swing and she would caress my arms and face with a bird feather till I fell asleep. After a while I started loving her & I would ask her to let me do it to her.

I remember I would get sudden nosebleeds and she would stop it by putting some alcohol or something like that in some cotton and have me sniff it and that would dry up the blood right away.

I remember when I got there I didn't want to talk at all. I think because my parents leaving me there was traumatic and on top of that I was very shy.

I remember the strange sounds outside at night at that age. There were loud frogs and crickets. There were always fans on at night because that was supposed to keep the mosquitoes off. There were mosquitoes in the shower walls too. It was hot even at night. I would take a shower and be sweating.

I remember when my parents came to pick me up I didn't want to go. I think I felt they were strangers. After that we would go back to visit Venezuela every couple years.

My grandmother didn't have finger nails on eight of her fingers. She used to tell me the tortoises ate them. She always had at least one pet tortoise. She also had birds and talking parrots. The parrots would make allot of noise in the morning when they would here her awake in the kitchen. She would get so mad and yell at them. She had a mean ostrich too. That thing chased me. It was scarey. She had a cat also.

I really liked that both her kitchen and bathroom floors had a little drain. The houses are made of red bricks instead of wood. They also have natural air flow openings on the wall next to the ceiling that doesn't allow in rain.

My grandmother said when her eyes were better she would read the entire Bible through every year and start over again & again. I remember watching her at night read the bible and she would always kneel beside the bed to pray, even in her old age. She slept with a watch on and she would always get up early, have a kneeling prayer and freshen up with some baby powder on her face and neck and chest after she washed her face. She would go downstairs and make the milk & coffee and milk & hot chocolate out of powdered milk.

My grandmother (Rosa- Emilia Ledesma) in Venezuela with my little niece.

May the only wise God grant you His wisdom for every part of your life.