By Edna Garcia, October 8, 2019 — I was born in Puerto Rico in the ’40s. How times have changed, my God. My generation grew up poor; today’s generation has a bright future. When I was a little girl, I had two pairs of shoes: one for school and a cute pair to go to church. Technology has changed so much and created so many jobs. The other day a kid came to fix my refrigerator cause it’s one of those fancy ones with the screen that you touch. Well, all he had to do was put this little chip in it and you know how much it cost me? $250. But he was so cute, so it was money well spent.
He reminded me of my husband when he was young. My husband passed away when he was 28 years old. His memory lives on through our two girls. Sometimes my daughter will think about him and cry. I tell her not to be sad because he’s gone. She has to celebrate the life he had. We all are born and we all die — everyone has the same destiny. I’m so proud of my daughters and they gave me beautiful grandbabies. Family is so important.
Let me tell you something, I didn’t remarry after my husband passed because I had to focus on giving my girls the best life since I was the only one providing for us now. But, make sure you fall in love with someone who loves you for you and respects you entirely. When I was a young girl dating on the island, everything was so different. If you left the house past 6:30 you were no longer considered a ‘señorita’. That’s not the case anymore, but I still see the youth acting reckless with their relationships. I’ll walk the streets and here boys talking about girls in ways that they shouldn’t. I’ll go up to them and tell them that’s not gentleman-like and that God is watching how they treat people. It’s so important to treat everyone with respect because we’re all humans and children of God. I treat everyone with love so that I can get that love back.
And here’s my secret for a successful marriage, should you choose to marry because this generation is just so different and free — but I’m not judging — don’t be jealous. People might chase after him, but If he’s a good one that won’t matter. Being jealous just makes them run away.
*Moment of turbulence on our flight* [Ed note: This story was shared on an airplane]
These things scare me. If we go crashing down we’ll fall into the mouth of a shark.