One day, in a Facebook group where they post job offers, I found an ad looking for someone to clean the house of Doña Carmen, an elderly woman who lived alone in a small alley near the city center.

On subsequent visits, I began to notice how difficult his life was.

The refrigerator was almost always empty: just a few eggs and a bunch of wilted vegetables. Many times his food was just rice with a little sauce.

When I asked him why he lived like this, he told me that his children were far away and that he didn’t want to disturb them.

I felt very sorry for her.

So after I finished the cleanup, I started staying a little longer to go to the market, buy some meat or fish, and cook him a decent meal.

Doña Carmen loved it when I cooked.
Her eyes lit up every time she tasted the hot broth I prepared for her.

On some occasions, when the pain in her joints was too bad, I would take her to the public hospital myself and wait patiently for her medicines to be delivered.

Once, as we were leaving the hospital, she took my hand and said in a soft voice:

— “You’re very much like my youngest son… he was a good boy, too.”