Don't give up, start again - TheInkwell- Creative Nonfiction Prompt #48

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Of the 5 siblings. We 3 sisters were single. We still lived with our mother, in Cumaná in a Barrio in a house, with a yard with fruit trees. My two sisters started to work, as I was the last one, and I was about to graduate from University, I did not work.

Aurora started working at the telephone switchboard of the Antonio Patricio de Alcalá Hospital in Cumaná-Venezuela,

When she had been working in that position for six months. A trade unionist who aspired to that position for his wife. He talked to the director of that center, who was his friend. To send Aurora to be evaluated by a doctor specialized in otorhinolaryngology.

A few days later, the director sent her to that specialist, who was also a friend of the trade unionist. To have her ears evaluated. The doctor determined that Aurora had hearing loss in her ears. Therefore, she had to give up her services as a telephone operator at the health center.

When She arrived home, as soon as she saw me she burst into tears, I hugged her, ran my hand through her hair and asked her:

"What happened to you?"

With a sheet of paper in her hands she held it out to me, with great sadness and her voice cracking, so much crying she said:

"Read it."

With great astonishment, and my hands trembling with anger, restrained. I took it and read it and realized that her services at the hospital had ended.

With great courage, I added:

"That's a lie. Your ears are in perfect condition. It's someone who wants to place someone else there, but don't give up, you have to start over, somewhere else."

From that moment on, my words encouraged her. A few days later, she began to introduce the curriculum in various stores, but the attempts were in vain.

One day, while we were having dinner in the dining room, she turned to all of us and said:

"Here, in my city, I can't get a job. I have decided to emigrate to Caracas to start a new life, to relate to other people, to look for job offers that will allow me to support myself there, to study and to work".

My mother, with her face white as snow, her hands trembling and her voice cracking, said to her:

"Daughter, if that is the decision you made. I respect it, go to that city and start over. May God help you and be with you, so that this attitude will make you succeed".

Aurora got up from the chair, hugged and kissed her and with tears in her eyes, and very moved she said to her:

"Thank you, mother, for allowing me to go out and wishing me, in God's name, to succeed!".

After a while, Aurora and I retired to the bedroom we shared, we were talking about our plans.

We also cried, because it was the first time we were going to separate. After calming down, we went to sleep.

As the days passed, Aurora packed her bags and said goodbye to all of us. My mother, making an effort of courage, said to her:

"Daughter, may God bless you, accompany you and protect you."

Aurora could not hold back her tears and said to her:

"May God, hear you, mother. She kissed him on the forehead and left".

Just as her mother predicted, a few days after arriving in that big city, she got a job at the Pérez Carreño Hospital as a medical records secretary, that is to say, she was the one who admitted the patient for any medical study in that hospital center. She worked there from 7 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon. In the afternoons she went Santa Maria University to study law.

SHe was also in contact with most of the staff working in the hospital and with the patients who came to the health center.

In this hospital she met a nurse, Laura, who invited her to a party she was giving at her house. Aurora attended, there she met some of Laura's friends, among them, Antonio Rojas, between Aurora and him a great friendship was born, then came love.

Soon after, they traveled to Cumaná. In order to meet her boyfriend. After a year, they got married. They bought an apartment. There they raised their 4 children. She continued with her work and studies. Soon after, she graduated as a lawyer.

Eventually, her children grew up and became independent. She stayed with her husband, who had always worked in a private company. That year he retired. The following year, she retired. With the money they received from their social benefits, they bought a house on Margarita Island.

In that house, she set up her law firm, doing legal work. She accepted to be paid with money, fish or any material resource. If a person could not pay her, she would do the legal work for free.

I always traveled to the island and stayed at her house. I went several years without visiting her.

Eventually, my husband and I retired from our work at the University and we decided to go on vacation to Margarita Island, I stayed at Aurora's house, in her corridor she had several hammocks, hanging, we sat in them to talk and we remembered things from the past.

She asked me:

"Do you remember the day I arrived crying at my mother's house, because they threw me out of the hospital in Cumaná, because I had damaged ears?"

I answered her:

"Of course I remember."

Then she told me:

"I am grateful to God and the motivation I received from my mother's words. They pushed me to start again. To achieve everything I have in life, especially this husband whom we love so much. And we formed a family with a lot of love."

I added:

Sister, I learned from you that in the face of any failure one should not give up, it is better to start over.