A Goal I Must Reach

On June 30, 1986, my first son, David Leonardo, was born. That moment was wonderful. An immense joy filled my being and that feeling was exported to everyone around me. I remember that the nurses behaved like my sisters that I never had and my family was jumping with joy. A moment I will never forget.

Time went by and I had a lot of fun with my son, I loved him intensely. I took him everywhere, parks and beaches, even to work. But sometimes you have to interrupt wonderful moments, the divorce came, and with it the estrangement from my son, a sad moment.

The mother went to live in a distant city and for years denied me to see my son. It was like a punishment she exerted on me. Many times I asked her to let me see him, but she never gave me the address. I thought about reporting her, but I didn't do it because I felt that the fights would not influence my son well. I was patient and waited for the universe to move in my favor.

Many years later, when David was in his teens, I was able to talk to him on the phone. But he had been injected with so much hatred that his words were meant to hurt me. Once again I kept quiet, I didn't respond to his attitude, something told me that everything was going to change for the better. And so it did.

He did not want to have contact with me, but that did not prevent me from knowing about him, what he was doing, how he was doing, and how his health was. For that, I counted on my brothers and father. He became a man, graduated and one day he gave me a big surprise. He called me apologizing for his attitude. He had come to his senses, the universe had let him know that I had never abandoned him, but that he had been taken from me.

We have tried to make up for lost time, but time and life do not turn back, the past is irretrievable and we have dedicated ourselves to a present and future full of love and happiness. A year ago I was given the joy of being a grandfather. Another wonderful moment that I can't erase from my mind. But in this case, it was different, David and my granddaughter live in Colombia. David is one of the many Venezuelans who left Venezuela for social, economic, and political reasons. He left in search of a better quality of life.

Now I am here, in a country in ruins, where earning a good income is extremely difficult. And right in this moment, or rather in all my moments, is the goal of accompanying my son and embracing my precious granddaughter. What I couldn't do with my son, I want to do with my granddaughter and in turn support David. It is a goal I must reach, and I will reach it because I am stubborn and constant and the universe is already conspiring to make it so.