My Parents Left Me Home Alone And Emigrated. Never Seen Them Since
Hi! My name is Anna Maria and I am eighteen years old. I would like to send greetings from sunny California, the place where I was born and raised, to everyone who's listening to me now! I bet most of you are thinking of a completely different California. Well, my friends, I was born in Baja California. I am a Mexican, and I live in a big city near the US border. One day, a long time ago, my parents crossed this border... and I never saw them again.
I could tell you a lot about emigrants, about divided families, about lost friends, and about poverty and discrimination ...but instead I will tell you my own story. It started when I was seven — my parents left me in an empty house, and fled. It sounds scary, but this is just the way it was. One day my Mom and Dad said that they were going to tell me something very important. I remember that I didn’t understand what was happening, except that the faces of my father and mother were so sad... Their faces were often sad, but this time their expressions were different, with some kind of determination added to their usual sadness, which even made them even rigid. I was borderline terrified and listened attentively to what they said. So my dad told me that he and my mother had to leave, perhaps for a long time, but that there was nothing to worry about, because everything they were doing was being done for me. Mom hugged me and promised that when they found a new, much better life, they would definitely come back for me, and we would hug each other, the very same way that were right then.Yes, I remembered these words very well...
Then my parents gave me a present… a toy plush snake with a strange, very kind facial expression, especially for a snake. I still keep it as a talisman and it’s already very old... But when that snake was new, I clang to it and stopped whimpering. I had very few toys, and none of them were new and beautiful. But I was still scared, and I did not understand where my parents were going or why. And why they were leaving me all alone – for some reason we did not have close relatives. But my mother said that Signor Gomez and his wife would take care of me for now.
Signor and Signora Gomez were our neighbors, I had known them for my whole little life, so at least this was good news that encouraged me! I began to wait for Signora Gomez, and my parents took their bags and left home without looking at me. At that moment I didn’t understand that my parents weren't just going away for a few days — they went to a foreign country in search of a good job that they could not find in this country. And, of course, I did not understand that they were going there illegally. Signora Gomez explained all this to me later on.
Signor Gomez and his wife did not take me into their home. My family’s house was very small, and theirs was the same, only three of their own children already lived there, so there was simply no room left for me there. However, Signor Gomez firmly promised my parents that I would be safe and he kept his promise — Signor Gomez didn’t touch any of our family’s things, and Signora Gomez spent at least four hours a day with me, cooked me food, looked after me, and kept the house clean. Every morning she sent me to school with her children, so I continued to receive an education.
The Gomez's firmly decided that no one should know that I was left alone. Signor Gomez forbade me to leave home without him or Signora Gomez, or to invite guests to my house, so I hardly talked with other children and played alone in the evenings, waiting for Signora Gomez to come to me. She had a lot of trouble with her children, and she always came at different times — sometimes I had to go to bed early, before sunset, and sometimes I waited well after midnight for when she could spend some time with me. But in general, my life was pretty peaceful. Only I was very lonely.
When I grew a little older, Signor Gomez brought me an old computer that was still working, and called for a cable company to put an Internet connection so that I could keep in touch with my parents in the United States and not just through their rare phone calls. But now I understand that he simply provided me with the opportunity to study, because my parents did not start talking to me more often when I got connected to the Net. At first they sent the Gomez's money for me but the transfers became more and more rare until they stopped completely. After a while my parents stopped writing and calling. I became a freeloader for the Gomez's, but they still continued to take care of me as much as they were able to and to the extent that they could afford it.
LearnAndRecord
2015年2月8日
2019年11月7日
第1734天
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