Despite Appearances, We’ve All Experienced Pain & Suffering

Recently someone wrote me asking me to tell them something soothing. She was going through a terrible loss, that of her two parents, and she thought no one could help her. She turned to me not because she thought I could understand her pain, but rather, because I was a writer.

What I told her was, dear friend, I feel like those of us who write don’t always life life through rose-colored glasses like you believe. I come from a conservative Mexican Catholic family that originally included nine children, plus my two parents, to total 11.

But then, in 1972, an automobile accident changed all that. The brother-in-law of my older sister of 25, my twin sisters who were 15, Lorena who was 11 and Cecilia who was 9 all died. It was a hard blow for my parents. Two brothers and two sisters were all my parents had left.

In 1990, my last sister died of cancer, leaving behind her two beautiful daughters, 11 and 15 years old. In 2000 my mother died. To date, my family consists of two brothers and myself, and thank God, my 89 year-old father is still with us.

As you can see, life hasn’t been easy for any of the four of us who are left of my family. What I can assure you is that I had plenty of opportunities to give up and stay in bed all day. But, there was always a voice inside me telling me that, as difficult as things may seem now, I would be able to move forward and understand the hidden message in everything to be able to keep living, that I would have a lot to give in the future.

Don’t give up, friend, life is beautiful, it’s just that in the middle of the storm that may be difficult to see.