The Mother-in-law

Natacha and I felt relieved after finding a good medical option in Cuba, but the reason that was weighing more in favor of the island had nothing to do with science but with love, the love to Valeria from Loly, her grandmother.

Loly, a very strong woman and in her fifties, lives on the east side of the country, in Bayamo, and was doing everything within her limited means to help us finding a doctor; she even traveled to La Havana in the back of load trucks to talk to doctors. Bus tickets are very scarce for nationals, unless one is willing to pay the price for foreigners of $50, which is way higher than the $15 monthly average salary.

 

Loly had heard of Dr. Salles through Jose Antonio, her partner of more than three decades, whose grandson had had one of his fingers accidentally cut off by a folding chair. The finger was put in ice, and Dr. Salles was able to reinsert it.

In our case, since the post surgery therapy for Valeria might take up to 8 weeks, she offered to take care of her granddaughter for that time; after all, it might be harder for Natacha and I to stay that long in Cuba.

I appreciated her help in finding a doctor, but I also appreciated her help with Valeria while visiting Cuba; for the first time in the 6 months, Natacha and I had someone to take care of the baby. “Is she awake?” She’d tell us early in the morning, wanting to take Valeria with her. “Go out, have fun,” she’d say to us; those were long awaited words we had been dreaming of on many sleepless nights. Loly would also pass her calmness and enthusiasm on to us; when I asked Natacha how I’d take a shower with only a hot bucket of water, she told her, “Show him, otherwise he’s going to end up like a boiled chicken.” Or she’d say things to us, but facing Valeria like, “we’re going to visit your mom in the loony house on Sundays if she keeps getting that nervous.”

Loly would cook amazing stews, fried delicious stakes, and tostones, and she’d even prepared rice pudding, my favorite desert, but I was told that after I left, and Natacha, and Valeria stayed for two more weeks, she limited her menu to mostly rice and beans.

The only time that Loly was a bit down was when we got the estimate from Dr. Salles for the surgery; it was much higher than expected; for Cubans this sort of surgery is almost free, but we were foreigners. 

Valeria was ever hardly away from Loly in La Havana

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