These are the people who one way or another were there for me as I grew up. No matter how far away from each other we were at times, there has been always a strong connection between them and myself. As I may remind my readers, I did grew up in Peru, at the age of 16 migrated to the US...These are the people I thanked from the bottom of my heart:
This is my mom. She is the one who day to day never failed to show her love for me and my sister. No matter the struggles we found ourselves in, for my mom would never give up. She taught me compassion, empathy for others, how to be humble, to always give from the heart, etc. I remember, what a hard worker she was, I remember how she would stay up late sewing clothes so she can go very early the next morning and sell them in the streets or the city plaza. She will always say: I will not let you guys go hungry or undressed, I will do anything for my girls". I used to tell her that I wanted to be a teacher or a vet when I grew up, she will always say that someday my dreams will come true.
This is my cousin although we consider ourselves like brother and sister. He is three years younger than I am. We grew up in the same house. I remember, when he came home from the hospital. The rules in the house was that nobody will touch the baby without having gone through my grandma's cleaning procedures. So I would say to my mom, when is he going to walk so I can chase him and play wrestling? As he grew up we were very close, always fighting for the little things. More often he would get me in trouble with my aunt and then my mom will come to the rescue. We will get in trouble sometimes with grandma and grandpa but because we were their only grandkids, punish would always get lifted quickly. I have much memories and anecdotes from us that it brings a smile to my face.
This is my grandma from my dad's side. She is the one who I grew up with, she is also one of the ones who took care of me specially because I was her first grandchild. I am bless to still have her in my life. I wish I can still have my grandpa with us but we don't. Every time we are on the phone, she always has advice for me and my family. She often tells me how proud she is of me. Great woman.
This is my aunt. She also lived in the house with us. She is my cousin's mom. One of her stories about me is when my stayed home and babysit me while everybody was out and about doing shopping. I was two at that time, when all of the sudden she hears me cry and yell at the staircase. She ran thinking that maybe I had fallen but no, I had decided to stick my head between the two rails from the stair case, my head had gotten stuck. Not a good situation. She tried to pull my head with no success. Luckily, my grandparents came first before my parents did. They moved my head a certain way where it just slipped out. My aunt was so glad, but she did not wanted to babysit me again. I remember her and my mom would throw the best parties for us . They would cook so much food, get pinatas, clowns, kids music, they were so much fun.
This is my dad. He loved taking us go-karting, horse riding, park, camp at the beach, watch wrestling, etc. He like my mom worked very hard in the family business. When I was young I remember, he left us to come to the US for a better future. He was gone for couple of years. I always remember the time he came back and me telling him to please not go again, holding onto his leg. No matter what was going on, he was always there for me.
