Hi people! It seems like ages to me since I posted like 5 days ago. No special news on this side, life moves smoothly in the tropics and the family is doing well. I’m having the most fun with my nephew who happens to be a very well raised kid, who likes to play and laugh, but I don’t know a child more respectful and obedient… not to mention how sweet and loving he is towards us, especially “Tía Tiz”. It’s like falling in love with him again and again.

I’ve spent the last couple of days being some kind of Teacher’s Aid for our maid’s little girl who goes to school and has some trouble understanding homework and has learning problems, but with my sister in law (an angel of God that woman!) we have been taking care of it and the girl seems to be really happy to have that help extra when her mom is doing housework. We just finished her Maths homework, I told her to rest a little and later I’ll dictate (spelling?) a few lines for her to practice her writting. This is definitely what I want to do… help kids to do homework… be with them when they need a big person to orientate them. My best friend, who is a Language Therapist, is also helping. Oh! I feel so happy to be with my buddy these days.
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Things are good here; I haven’t done much really, but it feels good to be among family and friends. We are busy planning how to make Christmas cards for people with the new painting lessons and we’ll put Christmas up this weekend because Andrés, my 4-year-old nephew is desperate to see the colors. Last night we went for Pizza and he had the most fun: he became a chef de cuisine and made the whole pizzeria laugh. I adore him!

Not much to say, really. It’s been more than a week since grandma passed away and we’re still trying to understand what happened; it feels so weird to go to her house and not seeing her there. Everybody is trying to balance life and loss, but everyone is doing fine. Again, thank you very much for all the sympathy messages.

I haven’t done much, but I’ve kept myself busy. Mom is teaching me how to paint pots, my sister in law is showing me how to make necklaces, my friends call me every day to go out and do something and seem extremely happy to have me here. This weekend was a permanent invitation to restaurants and the telephone hasn’t stopped ringing. Despite the sad moment we’re living, these days have helped me to understand the TRUE meaning of friendship.

I miss Patrice A LOT! I will confess that I’ve gone to bed crying a couple of times thinking of him and how much “il me manque”. I cannot wait for him to come in December and live for the first time a Colombian Christmas. But I certainly don’t miss the > 20cm of snow that Montreal received in the last couple of days… Ayoye!

My internet time here is very limited if I don’t want to receive a huge telephone bill, so that’s all for now. See you in a couple of days.

I thought I should write a little entry about the last couple of days. I want to thank everyone for their sympathy messages, e-mails and comments on behalf of my family; this is truly a very hard moment for us because grandma was the heart of this big group of people. Now we are left with her memories and the example she gave of unconditionnal love, service and solidarity; her endless stories and the satisfaction to know that she gave more than she could to us and society. She was a teacher who educated many people in this town and everyone remembers her with great admiration. For us, grandma was simply the personification of kindness and sweetness and she may not be a physical presence now, but her love lives inside each one of us in the family and the people whose lives were touched by her.
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It seems my coming back to blogging will take much longer than I thought. 40 minutes ago my brother called to tell me that our beloved grandma passed away after 10 a.m. this morning. After months and months of a limited life due to a stroke, her little heart finally faded away. She was 102 years old and always said she was going to die in November…

My heart is breaking and I really don’t know what to say. I’m changing my plane tickets to fly to Colombia ASAP and I don’t think I’ll be posting anything within the next weeks. Take care everyone.

UPDATE: I love my travel agent. She got to change my plane ticket and I’m leaving for Colombia tomorrow morning; I cannot wait to be with my family. Only those who really know us realize how hard this moment is. Thank you for all the sympathy messages and a HUGE thank you to Elisa for stopping by to give me a hug. I love you too, my friend.