Hello good morning my beautiful Hive community. Today I want to share with you a story that touches me very much and even though it has only been a week since his departure, I feel sad about it. But I want to tell you because I know that in spite of everything, it was and will be a story that I will always carry with me.

First of all, I would like to tell you how my Husband introduced me to his Dad.... As I had already mentioned, I met my Husband in the 3rd year of High School in a school in Puerto Ordaz - Bolivar State. My husband's family is from Barcelona - Edo. Anzoátegui, after a few years, we decided to travel to the beach, we were of age and therefore my mother gave us permission. When we arrived in Barcelona to my mother-in-law's house, we still did not know each other in person, but my husband always told me stories of his childhood and his parents.

That was 36 years ago and maybe you won't believe me but I remember very clearly the exact moment we met. I was sitting in the living room of my husband's parents' house and Mr. Dimas arrived with a bag of chicken gizzards in his hand because he had just gone out to buy them at the market and my husband took advantage of that moment to introduce us. Mr. Dimas stares at me and after a second he says, "Look, negrita, prepare a sauce with those gizzards" without saying another word to me. I didn't like the tone he used, because it seemed a bit racist on his part, since he was a Blanco and so was his whole family, I could only answer him this way, "I'll be happy to prepare them for you" and I told him very subtly, "But I'm his son's girlfriend, not the maid" and he, with a smile said to my husband "This negrita seems to be of a very strong character, and from that day on, more than my father-in-law, he became a very special person for me, he was my friend and many times I advised him with so many problems that he didn't know how to deal with and he always asked for my opinion and took it into account.

Mr. Dimas has always had a very strong character, being a military man. He even became a Colonel, but he did not follow in his footsteps in the military. He never had the love of a father when he was little and that made him a little bitter and dry, but he was a very selective person and knew who to be that way with and who not to be that way with. Fortunately for my husband, my children and me, he was always the best and always took us as his favorites.

Although he was very rough with his children when they were small, over the years his treatment and behavior towards them changed so drastically that what he lacked as a child he gave to his children, that love as pure and true as a father's. He always worked so that they never lacked anything, although there were few things, there was always just what they needed. He always worked so that they never lacked anything, even though there were few things, there was always that just and necessary thing that they needed.

Mr. Dimas had 2 marriages, in the first one he had 4 children and in the second marriage he had 6 children in which my Husband is included. He separated from my mother-in-law (not legally) but they stopped living together because he liked to be alone and live as he pleased.

When he was around 40/50 years old, he loved and preferred to live in the countryside. Because he was an animal lover, especially roosters, he loved to buy roosters, raise them and train them to go to those famous cock fights that were once more seen here in my country Venezuela. In those fields where he came to live, because he lived in more than one, he had horses, pigs, chickens, roosters, dogs, really a little bit of everything.

But beware, he not only liked animals, by that time he had a very good salary and in cockfights he always came out as the winner, so he always had money because of that, which allowed him to buy any kind of car he liked, he even had several parked in the garage of his house, but as well as he bought them, he sold them to be able to buy something else. He doesn't mind selling a car to buy a rooster or a horse. He got to have a small plane, motorcycles, 4x4 cars, trucks, but in the end, he was left with a cart that was a little destroyed but he always said "As long as it starts and takes me wherever I want, it's good for me". Whenever he had the opportunity, before cell phones did not exist, he always sent photos with dedications to his sisters and on the trips he made.

He always taught both my children and me that there is a solution for everything, we can never stay stuck and look to the side when something doesn't work the way we want or we can't find the part to fix a table leg. With anything he saw lying on the floor or badly placed, he would say "If you are not going to use this, give it to me, it can be useful for something back in the country". He lived his life as he pleased, in his own way, he never cared about what people said, as long as he felt happy. That's why he always loved to be part of my daughter's funnies when she was little.

Although a couple of years ago, he stopped living in his field and decided to move to his old house where my mother-in-law currently lives, because for the age he was, he could not stay alone without someone to take care of him, since most of his children are out of the country. He decided to live there only if they divided the house in half because he did not want to run into my mother-in-law.

In October of last year (2021) he had a stroke, better known as a cerebrovascular attack (CVA), the attack was not so strong but he could not walk without someone's help and it was difficult for him to speak. With the passing of the weeks and going to therapy he was recovering little by little, so much so that he could even eat by himself without being given food in his mouth. But the second week of January of this year (2022) he started to decline again because unfortunately we were in the stage where the Omicron virus was very outbreak in the environment, therefore that complicated him to continue going to his therapies and all that he had already advanced, he lost it. A week ago, on January 31st, unfortunately here at home we received the worst call.... To tell us that my father-in-law had passed away, this time a fulminant stroke.

I can't thank him enough for all that he shared and taught us in life. God lent him to us for almost 90 years and although I am still very saddened by his departure, I am happy to have had such a wonderful father-in-law as Mr. Dimas was.

Although unfortunately I was never able to have a picture with him, because it was not so fashionable to take pictures, I will always carry him in my mind and in my heart 🕊️🖤🙏🏼.

Every photo in this post was taken by a cell phone or old cameras, some of them are in my social networks and others I have them in physical form.

The banner and the separators are my own, I made them in the Canvas app.