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“Yes, yes, that is true,” he nodded. “Bring them when you like,” he said<br />
and went back to his gloom and chopping.<br />
After lunch, the afternoon transport came in, Angel at the wheel, <strong>with</strong><br />
Isabel and four of the younger children all squeezed into the front cab.<br />
I was thankful when I saw a familiar face appear at the door. It was<br />
Doña Rosa, laden <strong>with</strong> her bags of wares.<br />
Doña Rosa had been one of Don Elijio’s first patients when he was just<br />
starting out, back in the days when Chinda was still alive. She was a<br />
gregarious woman, short of stature, square framed, and full of laughter and<br />
stories much like Don Elijio. She was a trader, as Don Elijio had once been,<br />
and they had developed a deep friendship over the years. Whenever Doña<br />
Rosa, who lived in Benque—a town near the Guatemalan border—came to<br />
town to San Antonio to sell dresses, pots, pans, towels, and cosmetics, she<br />
stayed <strong>with</strong> her old friend, Don Elijio.<br />
The two of them were wonderful company for each other. Doña Rosa<br />
was four decades younger than Don Elijio, but she was part of the old world<br />
too. They loved to tell each other stories of the old days, and I had come to<br />
love her as much as he did. She doted on him. She cooked his favorite<br />
dishes on the open hearth and brought him vitamins, eye drops, and dried<br />
herbs from Melchor, the border town on the Guatemalan side.<br />
Doña Rosa lived in Benque <strong>with</strong> her husband Poncho and two teenaged<br />
daughters. When on rare occasion Don Elijio left San Antonio, he could be<br />
found at Rosa and Poncho’s home in Benque, where word would spread of<br />
his presence and patients would line up outside the door holding sick babies<br />
and propping up infirm grandparents to receive his prayers and herbs.<br />
Recently, Rosa had begun to learn about the plants and prayers so that<br />
she could do a little bit of healing in Benque. She learned fast, but she<br />
didn’t like to deal <strong>with</strong> evil spirits, nor would she, take on chronic or<br />
severely ill patients. She wanted to become a granny healer and refer all<br />
serious cases to Don Elijio.<br />
Don Elijio’s face lit up the moment he saw Doña Rosa at the door. He<br />
immediately went into the routine he always said when both Rosa and I<br />
were in San Antonio at the same time.<br />
“Ahh, I have a rose garden today,” he said.<br />
We joked about him being a thorn between two roses, and he<br />
shamelessly responded, “Get closer, both of you, and see if you can make<br />
me bleed. I have lots of blood.”