(8/12) “I came back to Peru full of confidence. I even started...

(8/12) “I came back to Peru full of confidence. I even started to research locations for a café. But my optimism didn’t last long; because a few weeks later, the collection agencies began coming to our home. We had to remove the doorbell from the door. And whenever there was a knock, I would tell the girls to hide. It was shameful. And Sebastian felt the full weight of the responsibility. His face was always wrinkled. His shoulders were always tense. When he stepped off the rowing machine one morning, and complained of a pain in his chest—I knew what it was. ‘It’s only gas,’ he said. But I knew. I called the hospital and told them to prep the emergency room. By the time the ambulance arrived he was in so much pain. They brought him straight to the operating room. But before the surgery began, the administrator called me to the desk. ‘Your insurance won’t cover this,’ she told me. I almost started crying, and I hate to cry. In front of people, never. But really, how much more could we possibly take? I thought the purpose of life was to enjoy. Enjoy your friends, enjoy your family. But for us it was nothing but problems: fix this one, fix that one. And all the time Sebastian is telling me to have faith. But it’s too much, really. What could be the reason for so much suffering? While I was standing at the desk, Sebastian’s friends began to arrive at the hospital. I told them everything: about the factory, the banks, the insurance. It was difficult to be that weak, but I had no pride left. And after I was finished, they gathered together and took a collection for the hospital bills. They paid for the entire surgery. During recovery Sebastian was in bed for three months. There was so much time to think. ‘I have to let the business go,’ he told me. ‘It’s not worth my life. It’s not worth you or the girls. But the bankruptcy will be very difficult, and you should know that we’ll lose everything.’ I told him that I understood. And I was ready to start again. A few days later we were lying together in his bed, when the phone began to ring. It was Sebastian’s brother, from America. ‘You know that restaurant that you loved?’ he asked. ‘It just became available.’”