Love is the essence of our existence, it is the reason that we are here and the only way to remain as-well. Without love there is nothing at all; there would not be any passion, any happiness, any inspiration or appreciation. Surely, love comes naturally for all of us. But, when it comes to finding a special someone to give all your love to, it can get a bit interesting; it can hide or never be found. Sadly, love can as-well be mistaken. I felt as if love did not want me to look for it, so I waited and in the hardest moments of my life it found me.
I would never forget the first time I saw my husband; it was late January, 2008. I could never forget, because he kept starring at me and the look in his face gave me a comforting and peaceful feeling. I was volunteering for the television ministry from my church as a camera operator; I had been since the past four years. The first time I saw my husband was behind the eye of a camera and it reminded me how much I loved my job. I had never seen this man in my life. But from that day on, there was always something about him that made him stand out, somehow even from far away, my eyes connected to his. Not knowing what is going on through his mind, I found myself trapped, completely consumed by his gaze. Call it faith or luck, but we kept encountering more and more often as time passed, and my interest in him continued to grow, I wanted to know everything about him, his name, his hobbies, where is he from, I even wanted to know his favorite book, color and even movie.
One particular day we were in search for new volunteers for the television ministry. I was in charge of collecting the information from the people that wanted to join the ministry. There were so many people that I was having a very hard time getting everybody to give me their name and phone number one at a time. Getting everybody out of the way as quickly as possible, I was writing fast and messy, hoping that I would be able to understand it when the time comes to start making calls. As I shouted for the next person to give me their information, nobody responded and I looked up, there he was he just smiled at me. I found comfort in his smile; it was his way of making me feel at peace. And this one time I did felt as if nothing matter more in the world, he grab notebook and pencil and wrote down his name and phone number. Finally I had his name “Dyrlan Torrez…” I just didn’t know what to do with it, and so I gave the responsibility to make calls and select the people that would start training to our television producer, Frankie Ramos.
After three months since our new ministry members had started training, Frankie called us and asked us to make sure that we don’t miss getting together on Sunday morning just before the service started. Frankie introduced us to our new ministry partners; Dyrlan was one of the four that completed training. Throughout the days, little by little I started to know him better and better, I asked him all my crazy questions and he asked me nothing, just responded. By this time I was having a tremendous amount of family problems, he was there for me, and he was my friend, he held me through and one day, probably the best day of my life, July, 4th 2009 he told me that he loved me. My heart stopped, and although I denied it with my mind and mouth, I knew that I loved him as-well.
From that day on everything started to change, our feeling grew stronger. Dyrlan decided to speak to my mother, he asked permission to allow a relationship to happen, and quickly my mother turned him away. I was not allow to see him, I couldn’t let this go, I couldn’t let he go, and so we communicated every minute, on every possible way. My mother realize that just by allowing me not to see him didn’t change much between us, and that lead her to not allow me to communicate with him as-well. I could not understand why she was making this decision, I was hurt. My mother realized that Dyrlan and I are ten years apart and she wanted the best for me, she wanted to save me in a small rose pedal that would not allow me to grow and mature, but clearly that was not the way things were happening. I knew exactly what I was doing, I knew what I wanted and so did he.
Dyrlan and I tried to sit with my mother and set things straight, nothing changed her mentality, it just made it worse. The day my nephew was born was January 19, 2010 I was allowed to keep my cell phone just in case something happens and I took advantage of the situation and decided to make one phone call. I called Dyrlan, he was happy to hear my voice, he wanted to know about my nephew if everything was ok, certainly not the reason for my call. Tears ran down my face and I forgot how to breathe, I told him that we could not continue. My mother didn’t want us to be together, she was willing to take any method to make it clear. I could not be any more of a burden to her, I hoped that he would agree with me and let it be. Silently I waited for his response, I prepared for the worse, but in exchange he opened his heart to me and proposed his love to me, forever. Probably my thoughts took some time to adjust, but I knew that I could never ask for anything better, and so I said yes.
I cannot say that telling my mother the news was a delight, because it was the opposite. It was very difficult for me as-well, but I cannot see my life without Dyrlan. We got married on April, 30 2010 and the impact that I expected to get from my family was the opposite; we have never been so close, my mother loves my husband, my sister admires him and congratulates me, and my brothers looks up to him as an older brother too. Love found its way to me; it brought many surprises along the way and many moments that know are a great laugh at the dinner table when we all get together. I too, admire my husband, his strength and perseverance, I trust him and no matter what happens in the world, there is nothing that we cannot overcome, as long as we stay together the way we did to get to where we are.
