Last to my childhood 2 by Ingrid Urán

My grandpa lived in Bajo Calima, You know this a town near of Buenaventura, it has a huge river and amazing landscape. I used to spend my summer vacations there, because I enjoyed to swing in the river all day or to eat tropical fruits like coronilla. But my grandpa preferred that his family went to Bajo Calima in Christmas. He called us saying “I am going to kill some pigs and some chickens, and I am going to make a swing for my kids”.

December 2003 was different. He was sick, for that reason He was in a hospital in Cali. He was since November. I was really sad; I knew that he was going to die. I needed to see my grandpa for last time, I needed to tell him thank for all happy memories and of course I needed to tell him Toño I love you, but I did not desire to see my grandpa defeated , he always was like trunk of a big tree. I had to go to the hospital.

Next day, I woke up, remembering that it was Christmas day, and I decided to face my fears, because my grandpa taught me “ Oye es muy importante coger el toro por los cuernos”, and “ en casa ajena se madruga”. This was his first time in Cali for this time, I knew that he was suffering much; he really wanted to be in his town. Finally, I went to the hospital, but as I did not know which room he was in, I decided to call my aunt. She answered the phone: “Your grandpa is died. He died that morning”.

Two hours later, I started my last trip to my childhood. My family and my relatives were crying, I was not, I was sure that he wanted to pass his last Christmas in Bajo Calima, Crazy old man , he always was the boss. Suddenly, Jaime, the husband of my aunt shouted “the van was here”. Jaime was very nice gay, he called other people with a funny nickname and he pronounced these nickname with a specially tone. I was looking through the windows, remembering every detail of this place, all these sceneries and the river. How many times were my grandpa and me feeding the animals or talking? I did not know, but I knew that was last one.

That day people and we buried my grandpa, people were singing “alabaos” they wanted to tell him “He had a good trip”, and we were laughing, because my grandpa was in the place where he was happy.

After that day several events happened and we could not return to Bajo Calima, we were threatened by the pramilitaries.