By 2010, Efrain, my husband and I were together living in the same house where we procreated, raised and educated our children, in the city of Cumana-Venezuela.
At that time he was 60 years old. At that age, he decided after graduating with a degree in Social Work at the U.D.O. - Nucleus of Sucre-Venezuela and having worked for 25 years and retired in the Department of Student Welfare of that Institution. As he had too much free time, he decided to study at the University UBV, with a degree in Education, mention in Culture.
We were already quite old, but with a mutual love that every day we loved each other more and more as the sea loves the sand. He consulted me about his decision to study again I told him:
"¡Approved!".
With much enthusiasm he enrolled, and began his studies. That cheered him up too much, he looked like a teenager. He got a group of friends, they organized themselves in teams to do reading cycles of interesting books, they organized activities in the communities. Theater plays, radio broadcasting with the participation of the members of the community where we lived. Since we were already alone, I accompanied him to all these activities and I was entertained with all these elements. When they saw on-site classes there, I did not participate because I was not enrolled. That is how 5 years went by, soon after he submitted his documentation to graduate and on August 25, 2015, they set a date for graduation.
Upon arriving at our home, Efrain's dentist left him a note "I remind you that today you had to come to my office to get your lower dentures that are ready and you didn't do it". Upon reading the note he said:
"I don't know what's wrong with me but lately I don't remember the things I have pending".
The next day my husband went to the appointment with the Dentist and the Dentist fitted his dentures. And then he came home and told me: "The prosthesis bothers me a little, the doctor told me that it was normal. I told him: "Take some sandpaper and sand the part that is bothering you". That's what he did.
The days went by, and finally the day we were waiting for the graduation ceremony arrived. We were all getting ready to go to the graduation. Efrain, very worried, said:
"I have a problem I don't remember where I kept my lower prosthesis in my mouth".
Everyone started looking for it and the search was futile.
Seeing that it was about time to start the ceremony and the whole family group was anxious, I told them:
"Let's go nobody is going to notice that Ephraim doesn't have those teeth."
When we arrived at the Luis Mariano Rivera Theater they were starting the ceremony, my husband went up to the auditorium and lined up with the other graduates. On the table in front of them were placed the medals with their ribbons sealed with a plastic liner. When it was time to place the medals, each of them had to tear the plastic liner. Since Ephraim did not have much dexterity in his hands, trembling with emotion and lacking teeth, he tried to tear it, but he could not.
His eldest daughter who was in the audience yells out to him:
"Dad throw me the medal" he hears her and throws it to her in a split second, she tears the plastic lining and tells him:
"There I give it back to you".
Immediately the cap is removed and the graduating student puts on the ribbon with his medal and then is given his diploma with the Suma Cumlaude mention containing his degree: "Bachelor of Education Mention Culture".
For us that was a moment of great joy and satisfaction because, despite his age, he graduated with honorable mentions.
Today I remember that moment, my eyes moisten and my heart trembles at not having him with me to evoke that moment, since it has been two years since he left for another dimension.
This is a non-fiction story
I hope you like it
the drawings are mine
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