Civil War and the Loss of a Loved One

By:  Mayra Hernandez

       Isidora is a 75-years old woman, but when Civil War occured she was 37 years old. She is a woman with white and wavy hair. Isidora married Joseph when she was 17 years old. She was very in love, but the death took him away from her life. She lives in a small town where people come and go to discover new things or to have fun, but for Isidora everything is different because she looks lonely. Their children grew up to form their own families, although some of them live near to her and she sees them often, most of her sons live in the U.S. Isidora serves to God because only en God she finds peace.

     In the year 1981 started a small war called "Civil War". This war was to try to stop communism in this country (El Salvador). Civilians have prohibitive to organize meetings to talk about communism. If people were involved in communism, they were murdered and also the entire family.
   

Isidora's husband, Joseph, was involved in communism. He listened people talk about how dangerous it was to talk about communism in public places, but he was very stubborn and he continued doing meetings.

    Isidora didn't want that something bad happen to him. She tried to persuade him to stay away from those businesses, but it did not work. They both loved each other and Isidora didn't want to loss him, but Joseph was not afraid that those meetings would bring him serious problems. However he wanted to protect his family. he always said "darling do not worry about me I"ll be fine. She wanted to think everything was right, but inside her; she knew something was wrong.

    Civilians suspected about him, but they wanted to research more about him so they were infiltrating in his meetings to hear about what he was talking about. When civilians knew that he was involved in communism, they came to his house at night to knock on the door to take him and kill him. Isidora remembers Joseph’ last words as this happened a couple of days ago. Joseph last words were "I'll be back soon darling, don't worry" and they took him away. He never returned to home and Isidora never saw him again. The civilians murdered him.

     After that, Isidora was so depressed and hurtful her heart because she have lost her only love, he was not with her anymore. She felt lonely, but she had to protect her family. She was afraid that something bad would happen to her family and she was going to hide other houses to protect their children from civilians.
    

When was was over nothing was the same for Isidora, her daughters and sons grew up to have their own families and let her alone, although they visit her often because some of them live near to her; she looks lonely.
           

Isidora remember these scenes of her life as a nightmare with the difference that Joseph is not there when she wakes up, this is the real life. She never felt in love again because Joseph was the only one she loved and occupied her heart. He will live in her mind and heart forever.