Odes from a

Daughter

N a t i ’s S t o r y

Chapter 5 “Recuerdos”

By Margie Jimenez
 Nati awoke with a start to the shrill sound of her alarm clock. Diantre,

it felt like she had just gone to bed. Bleary eyed and tired from lack of sleep,

she picked up the clock, turned off the alarm and glancing at the face saw

that indeed it was 5 am. Time to get up and get ready for work. Yawning,

she sat up and stretched out her arms, wishing she could just curl up under

the covers again. With her feet she searched for her chancletas1, found and

put them on and proceeded into the bathroom to get ready for another day

of labor.

After showering and dressing, Nati went into the second bedroom and

woke her girls. Her preciosas pequeñas2 were fast asleep. Pena3 that she had

to wake them up so early but she always made breakfast and ate it with

them before she left for work. It was their morning ritual and something

they all looked forward to each day. “Mis hijas, levantense4. Breakfast will be

ready soon.”

In the kitchen she placed some eggs in a pan on the stove to boil and

put the freshly ground coffee and water in the cafetera5 that her mother had

given her for Christmas. Before that she always used a colador6 to make her

café con leche in the mornings. Taking out some pan Italiano7 that her

1
slippers
2
Little beauties
3
A shame
4
My girls, get up.
5
coffeemaker
6
strainer
7
Italian bread
mother had purchased for them the day before, she cut it into pieces and

placed them on the hot griddle to warm. How she missed her Abuela’s pan

de dulce! She could almost smell the freshly baked bread as its aroma

wafted through her grandmother’s enormous kitchen in Puerto Rico. “Cuanto

yo quisiera un pedacito de ese pan ahora mismo8.” thought Nati to herself.

It was still hard to believe how long she had been in this country and

all that had happened to her since she left her beloved island. The day of her

departure had been wrenching. It had started like any other. It was a

beautiful, warm, seemingly typical Puerto Rico day. She got up, went to

school and came back home expecting her normal routine but what she

found when she arrived home that day was wholly unexpected.

Her first inkling that something was wrong was that Rubio had picked

her up from school that day. He never picked her up anymore since he had

changed schools and besides his school was all the way on the other side of

town. Because her school was not that far from her home, she usually

walked home with Lydia or Elena, her closest friends from the pueblo. But

that day Rubio arrived to pick her up from school with a stricken look on his

face. Her first thought was that someone had died. She had asked him

persistently what was wrong all the trek home. He wouldn’t tell her and he

wouldn’t look at her directly. Something was definitely wrong. “Now I’m

scared.” She thought to herself. “What the heck is going on?”

8
How I would love a piece of that bread right now.
 When she arrived home that afternoon, she saw her grandparents on

the porch waiting for her. That was odd. Usually she only saw Abuela Maria

awaiting her arrival from school each day and she always waited with a tall

glass of iced sweet tea and a hot empanada. Today there was nothing like

that. They had such a solemn look on their faces and Abuela looked as if she

were about to cry.

“Abuela, ¿que pasa9?” asked Nati as she ran into her grandmother’s

arms.

“Hay mija, hay mija10” sobbed her grandmother. “Te nos va11.”

“Going? Going where?” cried Nati.

Rubio grabbed her shoulder and turning her to face him said, “Nati,

they’re sending you to Nueva York to live with your mom.”

“What?! When?!” asked Nati in shock from this news.

“You’re leaving today. Now…” replied Rubio.

Nati ran back to her grandmother and hugged her tightly. “Abuela, por

favor12” she sobbed. “You can’t send me away. Este es mi hogar. This is my

home. I want to stay here with you and Abuelo and Rubio.”

Nati’s grandmother sighed as she hugged and lovingly caressed her

hair. “Hay mija. Es tu mama. Te necesita por alla13.” She said. “Cuanto yo

9
What’s happening?
10
Oh my child, oh my child
11
You’re leaving us
12
Please
13
Oh my child, it’s your mother. She needs you over there.
quisiera que no fuera asi pero es para tu bien, mija. Tu veras, para tu

bien14.”

That day Nati cried like never before. Even as she said her goodbyes to

Abuelo, Abuela, Rubio and the rest of her family, it felt unreal. It felt like a

nightmare actually. She cried inconsolably as she said her goodbyes. She

cried when she got in the bus, She couldn’t stop crying on the drive to the

airport and still cried as she boarded that plane. She cried until she could cry

no more. That day a piece of her was left behind. Her heart was broken and

she was never the same.

She didn’t see her cousin Rubio again until six years later when she

went back with Gracie to attend Abuelo’s funeral. Her cousin was 20 then

and a big strapping handsome man. He was attending la Universidad at the

time but with Abuelo’s illness and subsequent passing Rubio wasn’t sure if

he would go back. She learned afterwards that eventually he did in fact take

over the family business although she wasn’t sure if he had completed his

education. She would ask her mom about that. She knew he had married

when he was 22 and now had three small children. She hadn’t gone back to

Puerto Rico so she had never met his wife or seen his children and it pained

her that they had lost the bond they once had. “Someday”, she said to

herself, “someday I’ll go back to Puerto Rico and we’ll all be a close family

again.”

14
How I wish it wasn’t so but it’s for your own good. You’ll see for your own good.
 Abuela had not lasted long after Abuelo’s passing but Gracie did not

have enough money to take them both back to Puerto Rico for the funeral so

she ended up staying with a relative in Queens. She resented that for a long

long time. Her Abuela was like her mother and not being at her funeral was

the worst pain she had ever felt. She cried a river of tears for Abuela

because with her passing she knew her old life as she had once known it was

truly gone forever. She still missed her Abuelos terribly and her heart ached

whenever she thought of them.

Dismissing such melancholy thoughts, Nati put the eggs, bread and

coffee on the table and called to her daughters. “Mari! Nora! Breakfast is

ready!” In an instant, her little girls sprang out of the bedroom and ran to

the table.

“I’m starving!” said Maritza.

“Me too!” declared Nora.

“Bueno, mijas, coman15” said Nati to her daughters as she poured

them each a glass of orange juice. “Grandma will be down in a few minutes

and she’ll stay with you until I get home from work.”

Her mother, Gracie lived in a separate apartment in the same building

and since she no longer worked full-time she was able to take care of the

girls while Nati worked. Nati appreciated that she didn’t have to worry about

childcare. She knew her daughters were in the best hands because who

could love them more than their own grandmother. If her mom was anything
15
Okay my daughters eat
like Nati’s grandmother then her daughters had the best care she could ever

hope for.