He stopped in front of me.
And, with a humility I had never known him to have, he took my rough hands in his own.
“Doña Teresa,” he said, “I studied for many years to save lives. But you did something much more difficult: you gave your whole life to raise another.”
I didn’t know what to answer.
She smiled through her tears.
—Thank you for raising the man who is marrying my daughter today.
That hall, that church, those white flowers, and all those elegant people stopped scaring me at that moment.
Because for the first time I didn’t feel like the market woman who had mistakenly entered a fancy party.
I felt exactly what I was.
The groom’s mother.
The priest, moved, cleared his throat and said with a smile:
—Now then, if everyone will allow me, I think we can continue this ceremony… although I highly doubt anyone will ever forget the true meaning of the word elegance again.
People let out a soft laugh, still through tears.
I tried to go back to the bench in the back, but Lara wouldn’t let me.
“No, Mama Teresa,” she said, and it was the first time she called me that in front of everyone. “You’re not going to hide behind anyone.”
He gently took my arm and led me to the front row, right next to her parents.
Nobody protested.
Nobody murmured.
If anything, some people lowered their heads, ashamed of themselves.
