Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. 

Day 7 Question 7: As a youngster, whose house did you always look forward to visiting?

Answer: My Abuelita (Grandma) Isabel’s house was the best place ever! She would always greet me with a kiss and a hug and then she’d press a $2 bill into my hand. She would tell me to spend it or save it; now that those $2 notes aren’t around, I wish I would have kept them. She was a seamstress and there were times when I’d sit by her sewing table watching her work; she’d tell me all of the stories of all the dogs she had owned when she lived in Colombia. Her two favorite canines were named Trambia, after the street cars that had just come to Bogota; and Nylon, after the popular lady’s fashion accessory of her day.

At times Abuelita would tell me stories of my father; he was her youngest of 11 children. I learned a lot about him through these brief times of sharing.

Abuelita Isabel had a sweet tooth bar none. She would keep a tin of cookies, Lemon Coolers were her favorite. Once I entered her bedroom she’d give me a few from her cookie tin which she kept close to her night stand. At other times she would sit in her easy chair in the living room eating Tootsie Rolls and drinking glass after glass of water. To this day, when I eat candy, I wash it down with a big glass of water.

I always hated going home after spending time in Abeulita’s house; because her home and presence gave me comfort. Things were cold in the home I grew up in.At Abuelita’s house the whole atmosphere was warm and welcoming, much like the afghans she crocheted for her 32 grand children…I still have mine and on the coldest of nights I take it out and wrap myself in it, still feeling her warm embrace.