~~~Juan Santana was a memorable man. Despised by most, neither his looks nor deeds did anything to be likable. He was tolerated because of his wife Lola who was so young she could have been his daughter and had the kindest of heart; many times, she often when against him to help the needy or just giving others something to eat.
~~~Times were hard; Juan could not afford to be openhanded. He was never mean or cruel to her. He just put locks on everything he could to save him from her generosity because Lola put others before her family.
~~~His first wife had past away just like Lucas. He too had gained land from this union. He already had kids before he married Lola and was widow.
~~~Lucas came from a town call Pasto Viejo. He left there after his wife died of tuberculosis. It was a common deaf sentence back then. Poverty’s mal-nutrition and other hardships caused your immune system to defect to tuberculosis.
~~~He was the shortest man of the towns male population who walked hunched up. He acquired fame for his shortness in height. His slimness made him look like a child-boy still at an old age. He had crystal blue eyes that twinkle when he spoke to the few persons he cared for. He had blond wavy hair that was thin out by the sun.
~~~Everyone who knew him at one point commented on his height. As if, negative talk would subtract from his despicable characteristic. He was a miser and greedy as hell.
~~~His sons often joke about Juan’s hunch and his being so hard up with money. They all said he was hunch out of habit from looking for money on the floor or that their father was so humble he never looked up from the floor. It always caused a raucous of laughter.
~~~Like the commercial, I seen about osteoporosis, I now realize due to his lacking diet in calcium Juan’s spinal cord had given way to arthritis and his joints stiffen up. He not only walked hunch and looking at the floor, but as a child I notice he walked slower then me. I liked the idea he was such a slow walker. I had to wait for him and that was a change.
~~~But he admired my grandfather, Lucas and it could have been because he got the land next door to him by wedlock or because my grandfather like him was a widow. Juan quickly got a wife because he own land. Lucas had no prospect but marry into it.
~~~They spoke often since they had the lands proximity and they both work their lands.
~~~Juan teased Lucas because my grandmother, Julia was not pregnant. They been together for almost two years and she was still not with child. He gave my grandfather a recipe with the ingredient of the fruit of the higuera tree; the same higuera tree that is use to make maracas, a musical instrument, which is now made also of plastic, or wood.
~~~He should have best left the recipe written down because it worked. I remember as a child, I heard of several females who had conceived due to this concoction. Like all else, it is now gone to the grave.
~~~The result of this recipe was my mother Nelida who my grandfather called Nelyn. She was born on April 19, 1937 their first daughter out of two girls and three boys.
~~~Little did they know my mother would one day marry Juan’s younger son, Oscar.
~~~ Please feel free to give feedback.
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