On Becoming a Fit Girl - The Triumphs and the Struggles - Part Two (of 3)

This is the continuation of my previous post. To summarize that post, I related about my severe bout of depression that left me out of commission for a while. I reverted back to old habits and quickly gained weight. I was put on new medications and they worked just fine. My husband had planned a trip to Puerto Rico for the two of us. He knows how the Chicago weather makes me feel, and he thought a couple of days in sunny Puerto Rico, mi patria, would make me feel better. And so we got on the plane and headed to La Isla del Encanto.

For the first time we took a night flight to the Island; we generally fly during the day to get some extra time. The flight itself was weird; it seemed like it lasted forever, more than the 4 1/2 hours that takes to get there. At one point I looked at Andrew, who was sitting in the seat across from me, because the plane felt suspended in the air, as if it were not moving. Shortly after, I remember clearly, I asked him about my mom-in-law, with whom we should have had breakfast before our trip, but we weren't able to coordinate it. He said he would call her as soon as we arrived.

We got to Puerto Rico at midnight and proceeded to our hotel for the night. Early in the morning, as we were getting ready to check out, my husband got a call from his cousin Emma letting him know that Momma Grace was not feeling well and she was being taken to the hospital. It seemed as if she had a bad cold. From there on it was like a bad dream. My husband started getting calls that Momma had gotten really sick, and had to have emergency brain surgery.  I do not remember all the details because it was my husband who was on the phone constantly, so I just got bits and pieces about what was happening. I only know and remember the anguished look on my husband's face as he tried to get accurate information about what had happened. Brain hemorrhage, tumor, intubation, intensive care...those were the words that resonated through the conversations.

For several years, Momma Grace has come to the house on
Christmas Eve to make tamales. She makes the best tamales!

As my husband's siblings and family reassured him that Momma Grace was in critical but stable condition, and that there was no need to immediately get back to Chicago, we tried to keep on with our vacation, but it was just not the same. We were worried, constantly second-guessing ourselves as to whether to stay or go. We had some business meetings planned and tried to pay attention during the meetings, but the phone was constantly ringing and we could just not pay attention to detail. We finally decided to go back ahead of schedule; by this time we were aware that Momma was in a coma, and there was no certainty as to what the future held. The day we decided to go back we had a tour scheduled in a coffee plantation in Puerto Rico, Hacienda Pomarrosa. We kept it and while there enjoyed delicious coffee from the mountains of Puerto Rico. At the end of the tour we purchased some coffee to bring back, and we bought a bag to take to Momma. We knew how much she liked coffee and wanted for her to enjoy this delicious coffee too.

Delicious coffee from Hacienda Pomarrosa. After having this
coffee, I decided it was time to make a change.

On our way back, we were pensive, and cautiously taking about the future. And it was while driving back that I made a decision to quit my job, the job I had held for 23 years, in the organization which I founded, CALOR. I remember talking to Andrew about life's fragility and how one always thinks that  we have a lifetime to do what we want. And then things like what happened to Momma happens and that's it. It's over, your dreams are gone, you never got to achieve them. I did not want that to happen to us. We had been planning having a bed and breakfast business in Puerto Rico and had been making progress towards it for over a year, and I just knew that unless I quit my job I could not make it happen. Andrew supported me wholeheartedly and suggested I transitioned out over a period of a month.

We returned to Chicago and went straight to the hospital to see Momma. I was shocked and I can only imagine my husband's feelings as we saw her in the hospital. All the talk was grim; there was little hope that Momma was going to come fine out of this ordeal, and if she did, she would not be able to talk or eat, we were told. I was scared, but I tried to give hope to my husband. I kept reassuring him that we just didn't know what would happen. Thus began the endless trips to the hospital, monitoring what was happening, asking questions, looking at options. We could only deal with it on a day-to-day basis because we did not know what could happen next.

Meanwhile, on February 26, 2016, a day after my 48th birthday, I submitted my letter of resignation, effective March 31. I could not just leave; CALOR is my project, and I needed to make sure I left everything in order. Meanwhile, along with my husband, my nephew and my ex-husband, with whom I had formed a corporation back in 2015, Renace, Inc., we decided to go ahead with the purchase of a house in Puerto Rico for the bed and breakfast idea we had been discussing. So, on March 31 I left CALOR, withdrew funds from my 401k account, and got ready for a new adventure; I went after my dream. It was now or never.

With my beautiful daughters Amanda (l) and Ileana (r) at my going-away party.
I also got a recognition from the Cook County Board of Commissioners
for my work in the community.

And so on April 16, I, along with my three partners, purchased the home that I had identified back in October of 2015, La Mariposa. At that time, it was really beyond our means, but after Andrew and I came in January, we approached the owner again, and he told us "you are the answer to my prayers. I've been praying not to have to sell this house to strangers, and now you call me to ask about the house again."  Mind you that I had only met him once in October when I first came to see the house. And with that, he reduced the price of the house to an amount that was much more accessible for us. It was meant to be. We were now a step closer to fulfilling our dream!

Ever since I left Puerto Rico in 1987, I had dreamt of coming back.
With the purchase of La Mariposa 29 years later, that dream was
getting closer to be a reality.

But what happened to my journey as a Fit Girl? Did I keep up with the program? Last part of the On Becoming a Fit Girl - The Triumphs and the Struggles will be up next week. Check it out!