When I was a child I lived in a small town in the province of Buenos Aires. It was a very quiet small city with friendly people.
My friends and I used to go to play in the park and in front of it, there was a nice old house: from the window, you could see French-style furniture, a beautiful rug, and a very elegant lamp. We never saw people living there other than just an old woman, who used to watch us play through the window.
On some occasions, while we were walking by the sidewalk of that house, the old woman would greet us with her hand. Sometimes, she even smiled at us but not even once did we hear her voice. There were other times that we did not get to see her at all.
We didn’t know her first name, only her last name, which was Diaz. We had been told that when she was young she was a very nice and beautiful girl and that she used to have many friends. At a young age, she got married and had a son.
As for her husband, he had died many years ago. Their son had left shortly after his father’s death. The young man was an engineer and the company he worked for had offered him an important position in London. Everyone said he was estranged from his mother because since he left he has not visited her.
Since her son left, she took refuge in her house and practically did not go out. She was rarely seen walking around the town.
A couple of years passed. We had grown up and no longer played in the park. However, when we walked by the house we would greet the lady who lived there if we saw her through the window.
One day a man came to visit that house and those who knew him said he was Mrs Diaz’s son. He found his mother sitting on a kitchen chair but, to everyone’s surprise, she was mummified. According to scientific studies, she had been dead for more than ten years.
Journalists came from various places as the news spread everywhere.
People could not make sense of what happened because a few days ago we had seen the lady in the house and she was even smiling. How was it possible?
The son of the woman said that he had not heard from his mother for a while. She used to write letters to him but it had been many years since he had last received one. In her last letter, she told him that she was very tired and hoped that he could visit her and have tea together.
When he entered the house, Mrs Diaz was found with an empty cup of tea by her side.
It is until today that nobody knows exactly how she died; though, apparently, it was due to natural causes.
The strangest thing is that they say that she is usually seen, from time to time, waving through the window of that beautiful house, in a little town in Buenos Aires.
Student: Laura Coronel
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