My grandmother (by Tomás Sayago)

My grandmother was born on April, 1939 in San Juan del Puerto, Huelva.
She lived in a rented house in the outskirts of San Juan with her six brothers and her five sisters.
She didn´t go to school because her family didn´t have any money .Only her sister María Dolores went to school because she was the youngest.
In her free time she used to play “teje” and she played skipping rope and “piola”. She also used to make clothes for dolls.
For Christmas, her parents used to give her a basket with three sweets.
At the age of seven she started to work. Later, when she was a teenager she used to help her mum, she cut wood and she fed her animals.
She used to look after sheep and pick up olives. She sometimes went from one place to another on her dad´s donkey and she used to guard a field where her dad grew melons.
At the age of fourteen, something terrible happened to her. Her sister Mercedes died when she fell from a tree.
Her sister Josefa had to move to Huelva because her husband couldn´t find a work in San Juan. Now, she lives there.
My grandmother met my grandfather when she was fourteen years old in the avenue.
My grandfather rode her in his motorbike and she fell in love with him.
They got married in San Juan del Puerto.
She had three sons and one daughter (my mother Mercedes).
She didn´t have holidays but she and her family used to go Mazagón in summer.
Her life changed completely when Tomás, the youngest of her sons, had an accident.
After twenty days in the hospital he died with sixteen years old.
When I was born, my mother gave me his name and my grandmother was happy.
My grandmother has taught me many things: to be a responsible and hardworking person and to enjoy what I have got now and she didn´t have.