Two families lose their mothers.

Ingrid and Sindy with their mother in happier days.
Yesterday I attended the funeral of a young mother, 33yrs old. She passed away from a lung problem or a heart problem. The day she passed away her family was here asking for help, it was the first that I heard that she was ill. She had govt. health insurance and had been in the hospital for nearly two weeks but wasn't getting better. The family brought her home for a few days and she got worse, they then sent her to the city to the Govt. hospital. The hospital said that they needed to rent some equipment to use to clear her lungs, I don't know any of the details, but we gave the family the money in the morning so that they could take it to the hospital. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived the young woman had passed away. Her funeral was huge, it was the largest I have ever seen, at least 300 people, she was a very popular young woman who worked at the library.


She leaves three young children behind, 3 boys, a 13yr old, an 11yr old and an 8yr old. The two older boys are from her first marriage, her husband died. The grandparents of the first husband now want to take the two eldest boys to live with them. This is going to be very sad for the youngest boy, he not only loses his mother but also his siblings. This woman was only sick for a month ...before this she was fine. I am saddened by the fact that if she had received good medical care that she would probably be here with her family today. I am not critic zing the hospital or the staff, I am sure that they do the best that they can under very difficult circumstances, without the proper machines or medicine.

This morning, I just received a phone call that the mother of two of our sponsored students from San Jorge was found dead in the street in Solola. The students are #953 Ingrid and #282 Sindy. The mother was a young woman, 35yrs old. She has had an alcoholic problem for the past several years and often went off drinking for weeks. This made life very difficult for all the family. The eldest daughter, Sindy who is only approx. 10yrs old often had to stay home from school to do the cooking for the family. This obviously caused a big problem with her school work and her grades.

The father sells ice cream on a little cart in the village but many people would not buy from him because they knew the mother was an alcoholic and were worried about the quality of the ice cream because they made it at home.
He also works at the market two days a week carrying heavy loads on his back.

This family has no money ......they will need help to be able to bury the mother today ....if anyone can possibly help them with any small donation towards the coffin , it would be a real blessing for this family. They will also need help with food for at least a week, the father will not be able to work and this family is already lacking so much food. The youngest daughter was malnourished and we had her in our feeding program in the pre-school. Any help would be wonderful for this family.
Sharon