The last grandchild of Antonia Ruiz Garcia

She had a gentle smile and a soft voice, Spanish all the way through. It was a bittersweet visit to meet Delores, who prefers the nickname of Lola.  Lola Nuñez Camuña is eighty one years old, the youngest of nine children.  She and I share ancestors all the way back to Juan Ruiz Vallejo.   My cousin, Maria Ángela and her brother Antonio drove me to the next town (up the monster road) to Puerto de la Torre this evening to meet the lady, their aunt.  Their father was the oldest and Lola was the baby.  I had to lean in close to hear her words and I did not understand many of them.  Darn it, I thought my Spanish was improving.  I was wrong.

For nearly three hours, Spanish conversations rose in volume around me to compete with the television as seven of us sat in a small room trying to converse.  I felt like a bump on a log and disappointment shattered my confidence in the language barrier.

When one of the women named Paloma said, “Visitar Nuevo York?” I stared at her without any idea what she said.
“...visitar?”  I said, finally recognizing the word translating “to visit.”
All eyes turned toward me expectantly.
AlI could say again was, visitar?  Haha I finally figured out they wanted to know if I’d ever visited New York.  When I answered yes, they all seemed pleased that I could understand them.

My head was spinning by the time we left this sweet lady, whose house was filled with photographs on every wall, every table and piece of furniture.  Wedding photos, baptismal photos and sporadic pieces of their lives looked out from wooden frames to give me a glimpse of her past.  When I stood up to leave, she held my hand and wouldn’t let it go as she pointed again to my iPad where I’d shown her my ancestry.com family tree photos.  She was stunned to read the names and see photos about her grandmother Antonia Ruiz Garcia’s brother Francisco Ruiz and sister Delores, whom she was undoubtedly named for.  I loved the photo I saw of Lola as a young girl.

Sadly, she did not have a photo of her grandmother Antonia...but my cousin told me she has one more cousin to ask...maybe I will return home with a photo of the missing Antonia after all.  Paloma
snapped another photo of her grandmother Lola with me and Maria Ángela, the cousin who has been so diligent and eager to help piece together our Ruiz family for me.

Until then, my plan for Thursday is to drive to La Cala Del Moral by the coast to find my rental house.  I’ll miss Lyn, the swimming pool, Scamp and Scally and the peaceful tranquillity of Los Nuñez, but I’ll be back again soon.