Gonzales Family, Mexico

I wanted to include this story on my prior blog however, as you know computers and their programs have a mind of their own and the photos that I wanted to post with the story would not cooperate. So I outsmarted it and just decided to post another blog.

In a prior blog I had written about an old fellow, Nacho Gonzales who disliked Americanos, especially the ones attached to the house across the street where we were house-sitting when we first went to Mexico. We decided to kill him with kindness and eventually we won him over. Here is a photo of Nacho and John that I made when we visited the family on our trip to Alamos. Do you see he possibly has some Asian ancestors in his lineage? I was amazed as he has aged how Asian looking he appears. (There were many Chinese immigrants to Mexico in the early part of the 1900's.) Nacho was pleased to see us.


This photo is Nacho's precious wife, Maria Elena and their severely handicapped daughter, Maria Isabel who is 52 years old. When we met them Maria Isabel was sitting on the floor on a mechanic's creeper (like the mechanics used to scooter under a car). She was born with spastic issues and is unable to speak and has very little use of her hands and legs. Nothing wrong with her mind. She loves to play dominoes and enjoyed us playing with her. She has a wonderful sense of humor. We would make wrong moves just to hear her fuss at us with her uuuh, uh sounds. She knew exactly what was to be played and where. Due to her spastic issues she has difficulty swallowing and suffers various illnesses. In the past we began to bring cases of Ensure down for her when we would make a trip to the states. Strawberry is her favorite! In Mexico Ensure isn't sold in the grocery stores, it is sold in pharmacies and costs approx. $3.95 per can. As there are many grandchildren in and out of the casa we would only take a 6 pack per week over to her so the others would not drink it. This trip we took a case of Ensure for her. We left it at the Americanos across the street and they promised to dole it out each week to her. This family suffered heavy losses in the flood. It is sad as they can't afford to replace their furniture. They have a few pieces that were given to them. Nacho was a plumber in his working life and made a fairly decent living for the family. It was a pleasure to hug this family again. We are considered family and although we lived across town from them we were always included in their birthday, wedding and graduation celebrations. Love those precious people.