Long before the earthquake, I used to visit a blog called Polin en Camino. Polin lives in Concepcion (my home town), and I used to love her posts and photos because they were so familiar. Now, after the earthquake, she has evolved into this amazing person (my hero). She has organized a group of volunteers to go and help the people from Santa Clara, Talcahuano. These people lost everything, and Polin is determined to help them in any way she can, from cleaning what was left from those houses to provide them with clothes, blankets, even stoves... And in the middle of all that, she tells us the story... the story of those whose lives will never be the same again...
Bernardina's story comes to us from Santa Clara. Polin says that you look at her and she is very silent. She doesn't say anything. Her hands, her gestures are filled with pain, that sort of pain that penetrates your bones. The day of the earthquake, as soon as her house was shaking all over, Bernardina got out as fast as she could – she had always been scared of earthquakes. Her 33 year old daughter stayed in bed, she hated these stressing situations, so she decided to stay in bed, together with her niece. Her husband took Pablo, her 4 year old son, and asked her to get up, but she continued in bed.
Bernardina was already with her other 3 children in the street and decided to get to the hills, without waiting for them. While she was climbing, she saw how the water was entering the houses... there was no time to repent now... she had to keep on going...
When the morning came, and the water had receded, she came to the place her house once had been... there was nothing left... Nobody said anything...the water had taken everything... including her daughter... Little Pablo suffers. The ocean took his mom away, he is awfully scared of aftershocks, and he doesn't seem to make sense of it all.
Bernardina keeps on looking around, hoping something can change this immense grief….
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