This is how I feel, surviving a shipwreck…

When the wave that knocked us over so strongly finally passed the shipwreck arrived. As any other shipwreck, this one brought with it bumps, anguish, fear and lots of pain. But I cannot stop thinking that the captain of this ship, of this family, I mean Eduardo, behaved like a captain that fought until the very last minute, and gave everything away so that the rest of the crew could survive… Today a few days after the shipwreck, mi kids and I are surviving, but every day, we gain a little of what we had lost during the last few months of pain and suffering.

Eduardo’s life, left a very deep mark and as I said before, “honor to whom honor deserves… to you Eduardo Rodriguez Rivero for your great will to live every day, stretching your hours and minutes to face a tremendous sickness that never took you down nor weakened you, on the contrary, with an unbreakable will you faced it and went forward…You stretched your life to give one more step, to smile, to enjoy every moment and every word of encouragement from thousands of friends and loved ones, you also extended your hand and thanked and kept on loving your children, your family, your friends and me.” The mark he leaves is a mark of faith, commitment, generosity and a mark of so much love that is what allows us to keep on going, little by little, but to keep on swimming to get to shore, leaving behind the shipwreck, and only keep on swimming towards the shore.

Pain does not go away easily, it is not something we can take off, or pretend it does not exist, but we can make a choice not to suffer. We can choose not to allow pain affect every aspect of our lives, in such way that even with the pain we can move on without getting stuck and without the pain becoming a suffering that would stop us from breathing and filling ourselves with so much life.

This is how we are doing it every day, Andrea, Lalo and me, breathing life this way: “I inhale and I have faith, I exhale and I am at peace”. Water also has become an amazing ally, we literally are swimming to survive the shipwreck… Every stroke becomes a stroke full of life that pushes us to reach the shore where we know life goes on and for those of us who trust God, with the promise of so much life ahead of us…