(Photo by Pablo Nuñez/LINK)
By Lidia’s niece
My aunt Lidia never had kids. She lived a life of a nun, never had a boyfriend, never married. According to my mom, everyone thought she was strange since she could remember. She’d be the first one to get up on Sunday to go to mass, the one volunteering to lead the prayers, the one everyone asked in school to be an angel or play the part of Virgin Mary during Christmas. My mom said she doesn’t recall seeing her enjoy playing with their cousins or had friends and never got in trouble when everyone else was getting a pijiada or something.
I met her once yet I feel like I’ve always wanted to know more about her. She touched my hair and said I was tall for my age and got me the best salpores of my life.
She disappeared during the civil war and never returned. There are some theories that the guerrillas took her, confusing her for someone else. Other people said they used to see her talking to a boy during church related activities. My mom thinks she went crazy one day and got lost on the way home probably getting on a bus to another city. And my grandmother at one point started saying she probably drowned at the river during a storm. It was rainy season after all cuando la tierra se la tragó. Just like that.
She’s become sort of like a ghost figure that keeps us entertained when everyone in the family gets together. There is apparently two pictures of her left in the world. One was placed on my grandfather’s chest when he died a year after she was gone and the other one is in my grandmother’s closet back home tucked away with old towels and bed sheets.
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