WE ARE NEVER ALONE

For those:  1) who find themselves alone;

                   2) that in a matter of minutes let the despair on command;

                   3) before the water drop runs over the glass;

                    You are not alone.

Living in a condominium is not easy and when there are people who are not able to do that, it gets even worse, becoming unbearable. I live at 504 and some new residents arrived for 604. A water leak happened in my bathroom for visits, coming from their bathroom. When it happened with mine, 2 years ago, I fixed it at the same time, because it’s a matter of pacific coexistence, but what’s correct is correct, what’s by right is by right and as Jesus said: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's”.

Well, I went to the syndic, he put himself in contact with them and they said him that they would not fix it and the leakage was getting worse. I talked with the woman resident and she told me that she would not fix it because she was an assistant of an alderwoman, that I could blow myself up* and If I was deranged, I could fix it by myself.

How could I fix it if the leakage was in her apartment?

Then she freaked out. I talked with the syndic and this one did not have authority to make her pay. Desperate, I called to her job, where she is an assistant of an alderwoman and again she freaked out telling me she would not fix it and she even menaced me to record the talking. I was not rude, she could have recorded it, and I would even like it. She used this recording stuff to menace me. When I saw the syndic did not have the authority enough to make her fix it, and she offended me, I left desperate. The worst thing is when you act correctly and the people act in a bad way with you, endorsed by the cowardice of the syndic. He is the power, he is the law, he must have obliged her to fix it and he did not, demanding harmony between us. How? She damaged my bathroom and she would not want to pay for! It is sad, there are people that feel pleasure when trampling the others’ life, causing them despair, bragging themselves for being an assistant of an alderwoman, being over the duties of a condominium’s resident.

I was walking by the streets and the despair got me in a so strong, so strong way because she vilified me, bragging herself for being better than I am. Myself, so humiliated since the 1964 Revolution here in Brazil, still a child, I felt like throwing myself in front of a pick-up, enough. I told: “God! Forgive me, it is so much humiliation since I was a child, this is not her who brags herself for being the assistant of an alderwoman who can trample others. I do not want to live in a world where there is no respect for others.” Since she moved to the condominium, she made my life a living hell. Ex: noise after 10pm, dragging a sofa, jumping over the sofa, walking on high heels after 1am. When I was about to throw myself in front of the pick-up I saw a family of sparrows, where a damned person threw a piece of bread in the middle of a busy central crossing between Avenida** Rio de Janeiro and Rua*** Sergipe, but none car hit them, because they were so tiny they became barely visible to the drivers. They almost touched them but no contact. One of them stayed in middle of the wheels of a car. The sparrow hit the bottom of the car and when it passed, the sparrow flew to the roof of a house safe and sound.

I understood it like a message from God. I crossed the street, removed the breadcrumbs of the ground for providing the same luck, but even this way some remained, so I prayed to God, thanking for the small ones being safe and not hit. I was worried for some crumbs remain stuck in the asphalt and then a torrential rain fell dissolving all the crumbs. Once more, I thanked God for my life and for the sparrows, showing me that I was not alone.

Kátia Paes

PS: This is a real story, not a fiction, and it really happened with me. I would like to share it with you all in order to motivate you to keep the faith and hope in some sad and hopeless situations.

References:

1)  *blow myself up: In Brazil, this expression means something like “screw myself”, but in a lighter way, or not, depends of the point of view in different countries and cultures;

2)      **Avenida = it means “Avenue” in Portuguese and Spanish;

3)      ***Rua = it means “Street” in Portuguese.