The Story of Doña María

By Cesar Ovidio Clara, field officer, Area 4, Patulul

We were traveling through the areas affected by Tropical Storm Agatha, in a place called Barrio el Triunfo (Triumph Neighborhood) in Patulul. We thought we had helped everyone that could be helped, when we came upon 75-year-old María Yoxon de Gómez, a widow and grandmother of sponsored child Byron Gómez Martínez. 

When she sees me, Doña María begins to cry and tells me that she’s lived here for 58 years. It’s where she saw her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up. She used to come out and rest on these rocks in front of what used to be her house – a house destroyed by the currents of the Madre Vieja River. Now she simply asks God to give her patience, strength and courage to keep living the years she has left.

Doña María says that she survived thanks to her children, but they were also affected by the storm – and they have an even greater struggle. “Now who will care for me?” she laments. “They don’t pay attention to old people like me, because according to them, we’re useless now. Children make your life happier and they are the future. Youth make life happier, but we old people, to a lot of people, we’re a nuisance. I just ask God for his help as long as I’m still alive on this blessed earth.”

I can’t help but wonder: Perhaps people who have a deep love for children can also find it in their hearts to help this little grandma...

Read more about the children and families affected by Tropical Storm Agatha in Journeys: More of the Story.