To help me during recovery, I hired a health aid, Rosa, recommended to me by a Sutter Healthcare social worker that was providing services to my husband.   She was quite a good find.  I recommend to everyone to make sure that they have the necessary support at home to let go of all the responsibilities …

By now you know that I am a senior citizen.  While I have reminisced about my childhood in Nicaragua, the intentional parenting of which I was the beneficiary and my college days, today I will share with you my experiences getting old. It is a joy to think that the preparation and hard work of …

Mother and Mrs. Magoon When mother and I arrived in Findlay, I was only 18.  My main concerns were learning from my studies as well as from experiencing a different culture and a foreign environment.  So many things were new and interesting: living in a dorm with English speaking friends; learning how to shop for …

Welcoming tea by Findlay community You have read in prior blogs that I was enrolled in a 2 week acculturation program for foreign students at Chatham College in Pittsburgh. When that was over, mother and I left for Findlay. What an adventure it all was. I believe that we flew from Pittsburgh to Toledo to …

April 14, 1914 – August 5, 1997 In Spanish speaking countries, our full, legal names include both of our parents’ surnames – the father’s lineage comes first and it is the most important one.  In my father’s case, that would be Barberena as he was the son of Juan Barberena.  Perez comes from his mother’s …

In Nicaragua, people tell stories to each other while rocking in the ever present rocking chairs.  This is our way of expressing ourselves, making connections and entertaining visitors.  So, I’ll proceed to tell you a story about my formal schooling which started at an early age.  At the age of 3, I started noticing that …

Neighbors would tell my mother to be careful with her in-laws as they were a difficult clan to contend with.  Mother already knew. Now that I have been married for 35 years, I know that in-laws can make your life sweeter or treacherous. I also know that marriage requires work even in the best of …

I have written how my mother lost her parents at an early age. She also died young.  As I examine her life, she learned from the struggle of living through the challenging hand that was dealt to her. Following me, she immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles where she had friends …

You never know where life will take you.  When I was growing up as a Catholic girl I never thought that I would marry and later divorce.  Marriage was supposed to be forever.  However, that was not true for me, painful as it was in so many levels.  In addition to the personal loss, I …

According to my father, a Nicaraguan historian, Granada, the city of my birth, is the oldest city in the Americas, founded in the first quarter of the 1,500’s.  Family folklore has it that I was born at 6:00 a.m. in my mother’s home.  Early that morning my father went off in a horse drawn carriage, …