In this chapter, Sonia further describes her close relationship with Abuelita (her grandmother, right?) and her death while Sonia was a student at Princeton. Abuelita didn't write much, but she would send Sonia an envelope containing a paper napkin and a dollar bill, on a rare occasion, a five-dollar bill, of which Sonia remarks: "...I could see her smiling from seventy miles away."
She speaks of her grandmother's wisdom, especially as expressed in her spiritual powers of healing. We read of Sonia's understanding and experience of grief in lines like:
"In the weeks that followed, I understood for the first time Abuelita's devastation when Papi died, how it had cut into her spirit. Her death did the same to me. A piece of me perilously close to my heart had been amputated. The sense of loss was startling, physically disorienting....I can still hear her voice sometimes, all these years later. 'Don't worry, mi'jita,' she says, and I feel her protection
She speaks of her grandmother's wisdom, especially as expressed in her spiritual powers of healing. We read of Sonia's understanding and experience of grief in lines like:
"In the weeks that followed, I understood for the first time Abuelita's devastation when Papi died, how it had cut into her spirit. Her death did the same to me. A piece of me perilously close to my heart had been amputated. The sense of loss was startling, physically disorienting....I can still hear her voice sometimes, all these years later. 'Don't worry, mi'jita,' she says, and I feel her protection