We Are Back; More of What is to Come
I honestly think my Titi will be with me forever. I don’t know a life without her, nor am I ready to anytime soon, as we never are. She’s healthy, and sassy and strong, the truest Leo if there ever was one, but intellectually I know that my “forever” with her isn’t forever. That is true for anyone and everyone, but when you see someone you love approach a specific age it feels wonderful and daunting. But if anyone were to live to be well into their 100’s it would be her, though she would rather it not be.
With that being said I feel like writing her story is this weird unspoken race against time. A race I didn’t know I entered. I took an unintentional break this summer due to simply no personal time to write and create. I think nothing of it until I get this little voice in my head saying “she hasn’t told you everything yet”. It’s less about the race to write but the race to learn. Do we ever know it all though? Is there ever enough time to truly soak up every piece of our loved ones lives? Even if we are LUCKY enough to get all of their years, do we ever feel their story is complete? Or is there always an ache of just a few more chapters… a few more pages… just MORE. Maybe that’s the beauty of a granddaughter writing her grandmother’s story. I get to be her next chapters, I get to continue this never-ending story, I get to put something on page that started long before I was here and I hope continues long after I am gone.
Lucy and Ethel; An Addendum
When I started cooking, in LaPaz I used to get condensed milk, cover the can in water and let it boil for a couple of hours and then you open it and you have caramelized milk. I figured I would do the same in Camiri. I put it on low and my friend and I went shopping thinking it would take a long time for it to “cook”. I didn’t realize that the change in the altitude and heat made things cook so much faster. When we got back the water had gone off and the condensed milk had exploded all over the kitchen and all over the walls. It was everywhere! We had a little dog then and we opened the door and the dog shot out like a bullet, it probably scared him half to death.
One more thing, again in LaPaz things in the altitude take a very long time to cook and Camiri is sea level. I didn’t think anything of it. So one day I decided to cook a beef tongue which takes a long time in LaPaz. You fill up a pot with water and let it cook down so I did the same thing in Camiri… went shopping with my friend..again…and came back and we saw the smoke coming out of the windows and the poor little dog shot out of the house like a bullet, again. So anyway I had ruined the pot and filled the house with smoke and if we hadn’t come back when we did I would have burned the house down. My sweet young husband used to just say “oh Ninita, oh Ninita..” That’s what he called me. Well, you can add that story too.
A Sneak Peak of What’s to Come
Now we have moved into a new home. It was finally finished and was a very nice house, not too big, not too small but it was ours. So then I hired two people to work for me, a cook and a maid. Ida was the name of the cook and Rosa was my maid. Rosa would clean the house every day for us and Ida had been a cook for the Argentinian Embassy and she had been fired because she took some food to her children. She was a single mother supporting two children and I didn’t mind her taking food for them of course. She was an amazing cook, just incredible. I would just say “it will be 6 people for dinner tonight” and she would know exactly what to cook and even know what wines to pair with it.
At that time I was pregnant and was quite big. I had a wonderful pregnancy. I never got sick and I felt better than ever, the only thing was that a couple of times I would just faint. Not quite sure why, but it was a bit scary but that was it. I just kept getting bigger and bigger and looked like one of those trees with big trunks. Henry thought I looked beautiful, he really loved me pregnant and I did feel very good. But I was afraid to have the baby in the oil camp. I wasn’t sure what would happen in case of a medical emergency so we were going to go to LaPaz around the time we were due and I would deliver there… but that is it for now.
