As I was the last of my mother's children, Leonides, I felt very close to her. Sometimes I wanted her to give me affection. I had little time, but to make up for my affection, I would climb on her legs, pedal on her machine (which in turn was manual) and go round and round, like on a seesaw in an amusement park. For me, it was a lot of fun, at that time I was a 5-year-old girl. She would explain to me:
"The thing is, I have to deliver those suits today."
Despite my young age, I understood the situation.
As the years went by, I became a teenager. When I turned 15 years, my mother made my dress. At dawn, she gave me the surprise. It was beautiful. The day after my party, I had the curiosity of wanting to be like my mother, a designer and dressmaker.
The next month, when I came home from high school, I approached my mother, who was sitting at her sewing machine.:
"Mother, I am almost about to graduate from high school and I want you to make it easy for me to go to Caracas to study fashion design, I want to be like you."
My mom paled, her eyes grew bigger than usual, her hands trembled, she clenched her jaw, very angry she said:
" How, did you come up with, that bad idea, with me do not count, I do not want you to be a slave like me! Then she continued:
"You see how I spend all day until dawn sewing. I recommend you to study another profession".
The pains and despair reflected in my mother's face was so great. I hugged her and told her:
"It's okay, mother I will study another career, and it will be here, in Cumaná".
In spite of my mother's words, I always felt the curiosity of being a seamstress like Leonides.
When I would come back from high school, I would sit next to her and watch her take the measurements of the people who came to her to have their clothes made. Then she would make her patterns and then cut the fabrics and make the design her client wanted.
At that time, my curiosity led me to learn how to make all those details. As soon as night fell, I would retire to my room. In my solitude with old newspapers I would make patterns to make blouses, pants and dresses, as I didn't have a sewing machine, I would make them by hand. When my mother saw those garments, she would ask me:
"Who made you those clothes?" I replied :
"A friend gave them to me."
Leonides, added:
"That seamstress has a lot of aesthetics."
Three months passed and I graduated from high school. In March of the following year, I entered the Nuclei of Sucre to study Sociology. I studied in the established time, achieving my goal. That day in the dining room of my house while I was having breakfast with my mother, she told me:
"As soon as we are done, you will escort me to my bedroom." So we did. When I opened the door, I was surprised to find a beautiful dress on her bed. I couldn't help a gasp of exclamation, "It's beautiful, for me?".
She sat on the corner of the bed and replied:
"It's for you, to wear this afternoon for your graduation ceremony. Try it on"
As I tried it on, I looked in the mirror, turned around, hugged and kissed her. I added:
"You are the greatest thing I have in this world and the best dressmaker in the universe."
Her eyes became moist with happiness, She could not utter a word, crying broke her words. She inhaled oxygen, then exhaled and continued:
"Today I culminate my pedagogical task with you, my 5 children. With you today I achieved my goal, all of you have graduated". She hugged me and continued:
"I feel like the bravest and most successful woman in this world."
Then she laughed and said to me, "I have made a decision not to sew anymore. All your brothers are working and helping me, and soon you will be working too."
"That's very well-thought-out, mother. Come with me, let's go to my room, I want to show you something." My mother asked me very captious:
"¿What is it that you are going to teach me with so much mystery?"
I answered her very sweetly
"Little blind hen, seek, and you will find".
When I opened the door to my room. From a hanger hung a beautiful dress, royal blue, bordering its neckline light blue rhinestones, which harmonized with the other color. My mother exclaimed, "Who did that!".
"I"
"I can't believe it!" She replied in surprise.
She took it in her hands, looked it over and added:
"But if it is sewn by hand, similar to a seam from a sewing machine."
Leonides asked :
"How did you manage to do it?" I was always curious to see how you made a unisex pants, a blesses, a dress and other pieces of tailoring". I sighed deeply then continued:
"This curiosity led me to learn all those details from you, without you realizing it, since you didn't want me to learn that art, because I was going to be a slave. I am already going to graduate in another specialty than this one."
However, Leonides said to me:
"You tailor as pretty as I do. From this moment on, I give you my sewing machine, so that you can make your dresses. And other fashion accessories.
A few months later, my graduation ceremony took place. I was dressed in the dress that my mother made for me, which highlighted my figure and my beauty. And she was very well-dressed in the dress that I made for her.
After I graduated with my degree. There were a few months that I was unemployed, at that time, I made clothes for my mother's clients, with that income I helped me and these were extensive to her.
After several months, I began to work in a school as a librarian. After a short time, I applied to the University and began to work. There I retired when I completed the statutory years of service.
The art of sewing, which I learned out of curiosity, I practice it in my spare time for my family. Years ago, when my mother was still alive, she would sit next to me and her face would show an expression of happiness.
use the deepl translator
the image is from pixabay
the story is non-fiction
I hope you like it