Extraordinary Little Things

By Maria H., on mission in Honduras

We needed bread for breakfast one day, so I let the others know that I was heading to the little sale stand down the street to buy some bread, where Ramona works. It was hard for me to gain any sort of trust from Ramona to really form a friendship, but little by little, we have become friends. I decided to stay that morning and see if I could chat with her.

Eventually, Ramona brought up the recent death of her uncle. I was not expecting this turn in the conversation, but it seemed that it was something that she needed to get off her chest. She explained with as much detail as if it had happened yesterday. As she was talking, her eyes were not there. They were somewhere in the distance, still reliving the moment.

“My uncle told me that he would dance with me at my Quinceañera [fifteenth birthday party]… But when I saw his seat empty at my party, I just cried and cried.”

When it came time for me to leave, I naturally went for a hug expecting it to be rejected because Ramona has told me that she hates hugs, and she doesn’t give them even to her own family. But she opened her arms to me just like she had opened her heart. From this day on, we have steadily grown a deeper friendship. What started out as a very ordinary thing, buying bread for breakfast, turned out to be an extraordinary encounter of two people sharing their hearts.