Dear Diary,
1985
Today I visited my grandfather and he finally told me the story I had been waiting for twelve years; his survival back in 1985.
Fifteen years ago, an earthquake jolted awake all of the citizens in Mexico City . Grandfather was one of the awaken. When I
arrived at his house, I ran and knocked begging him to tell me the story because I was finally twelve. My grandfather took an
eternity to come downstairs,and sit in his very own spot. Pouring Coca Cola with two ice cubes into a glass. He started the
conversation only because I kept telling my grandfather to stop evading it.
After about thirty minutes, things started to get serious. I started to finally understand why he did not want me to listen to the
story before. My grandfather told me that at exactly 7:18 in the morning, his bed started to shake and the only thing he managed
to do was stand up and place himself right below a door. He described his fear as he told me how he listened to everything in his
house fall apart and yet frightened that he was still alive. He insisted that his nerves were inexplicable and he only kept trembling
and wishing that everything would be okay; even when he could only listen to the screams and loud noises of the sirens announcing
something had ended up wrong. Minutes later, he rushed to the street and realized it had all been devastating. As he took his time
to recap everything in his mind I could see pure sadness through his eyes and I wanted to tell him that everything was fine now.
Then, he started to tell me about the streets. He described it as a destruction to human progress, since all the building and
constructions that were new to the city had fallen apart. Buildings crashed to the floor, cement blocks covering cars, broken glass,
people screaming for help, firefighter alarms throughout the entire city and most importantly, he also described the terrified looks
in all the citizens. He told me it was something I would never be able to imagine, because either you live it or you’ll never really
feel the same way he feels. He told me that the most impressing part of the entire morning was watching the emergency helpers
cover corpses with a white cloth that soon blended with blood and dirt and it became a red brown cloth.
Time passed and then he started to get tired, so I figured that the best thing I could do was tell him we had already covered most
of what I wanted to hear. I called my mom and thirty minutes later she picked me up. She told me that my expression looked
different; it looked astonished. On our way home, I told my mom the entire story and she was happy for my grandfather. She told
me that he needs to talk to more people about the earthquake because it is something that has a great impact on him. I really
liked my day, it was not ordinary.. Yet, tomorrow I will return to my grandfather’s house and we will finish the story for the first
time.
13 of 33