Would you choose your family or would you choose salvation?  This is what my mother had to experience when she was a young girl.  Living in Tijuana, Mexico, my mother was dirt poor.  Her parents and siblings were forced to search for food.   Their situation was terrible, my mother used to tell me stories of how her and her siblings dug in trash cans to eat.  One can only imagine the stress and the pressure my grandmother must have felt, not being able to feed her children and at the same time, she had to care for an abusive husband who was violent towards everyone, but the newborn, which was my uncle.

My mother told me my grandmother used to travel to San Diego to clean  a few people’s homes and sometimes they helped her out by giving her food in addition to her pay.  My mother in times used to accompany my grandmother to San Diego, so she met some of the families.  My mother was a pretty girl and a family offered to care for my mother to help alleviate my grandmother’s situation.  Understanding what the family was going through, my mother agreed to stay with the couple in San Diego.  A young girl opting to stay with strangers to help her mother is very hard to digest, no child should ever have to go through such trauma.

Eventually my mother became depressed.  My grandmother had to pick her up after the couple asked her to go for my mother, since she was becoming ill.  My mother grew up with this feeling of abandonment.  She eventually forgave my grandmother, but living in such a state is a killer. If one had to choose to stay with family and live through hardship or choose salvation, but abandon everything you know is a no brainer.  But my mother made the decision because of their condition-having my grandmother as her reason to move away. Such coming of age moment.  I will never forget the story.  I have a child and I could not see myself giving my kid away, I would hunt for food to feed him, but at the same time, I only have one.  My grandmother had 8 in Tijuana and a few more in Morelia, Michoacan. I need to get her side of the story. So this post is To Be Continued…