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Lourdes Valdivia Nunez
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Peru - Calgary
Art by Emily Honderich
Lourdes Valdivia Nunez story
Lourdes Valdivia Nunez As an entrepreneur in her country, Peru, Lourdes met her Canadian husband on his business trip to South America. Both worked in their restaurant before coming to Canada. Lourdes, her child, and her husband arrived in Montreal in 2004, where she studied a Massage Therapy Certificate, a skill that she perfected when moving to Calgary in 2010. Sadly, Lourdes' husband and mother passed away during the pandemic of 2020. She is currently working at the Calgary Board of Education as an assistant since 2016.
May 14, 2020
That day I went out for a walk as usual after our lunch. On my return home, I would usually find Peter, my husband, having a bath, or nap. During the quarantine, Peter and I got closer and more tender to each other than ever.
“Peter, at what time do you want to have dinner?” I asked him.
“Well, whenever you want,” he said.
“I am going to take my bath, and then we have dinner, ok?” I answered.
My husband went to sit and watch television already in his robe. When I finished my shower, I went to see him and found him asleep, my first thought was, “I will let him sleep a little more before dinner,” but something inside me made me come back to wake him up.
He was leaning back with his mouth open, his lip purple-red, and his hands cold. I am calling his name “Peter, Peter!” but nothing happened, nothing changed. I was desperate and I started to cry and run around. Then I reacted, and I called my son yelling, “Peter is dead!”
Today I can say that marriage is like a garden full of beautiful flowers that we have to water so that they do not wilt, and if they do, we need to prune them out. Coronavirus gave us the chance to stay home, to stay safe. More than that, it gave us the chance to care for our loved ones with love until the end.
"Today I can say that marriage is like a garden full of beautiful flowers that we have to water so that they do not wilt, and if they do, we need to prune them out. Coronavirus gave us the chance to stay home, to stay safe. More than that, it gave us the chance to care for our loved ones with love until the end."