It was right before my daughter‘s 30th birthday when it all started. I remember when my daughter Jessica said to me “mom, I wanna go back to my grandmothers roots. I wanna know what makes her the person that she is. What is it that makes her so incredibly compassionate and so full of love that even the dogs gravitate to her like a magnet”? On March 13, of 2020, we landed in the Dominican Republic, and this was the first time that my children stepped foot in the country that gave birth to the most extraordinary woman that they had ever known, their grandmother. Jessica was quickly overwhelmed by the harshness of extreme poverty and the lack of opportunity. The poverty and lack of opportunity were palatable, but at the same time, she was impressed with the simplicity of these people. They had what mattered. They where connected; they were part of a community.

As we embarked on our journey, we met one person after another who talked about the enormous heart of her grandmother Albertina, and her grandfather Pedro Arquimedez. One woman spoke about Pedro Arquimedez paying for her education. Another spoke about him leasing her a place to live, and yet another said he would feed his neighbors. I also learned that Albertina had pledged to care for an orphaned child financially. She not only provided for this child’s needs, but she also cared for the family who sheltered that child. Albertina never forgot those who supported her even after migrating to the USA in 1968 and later her children in 1970. Albertina remitted a portion of her salary for decades after her children were in the US. She was forever grateful.

Albertina and Pedro Arquimedes embodied the true meaning of love for humanity. These where people of little resources who made an enormous impact. That is when it became clear to me what my purpose was. I came back to the Dominican Republic to show my daughter her roots, and in turn, I found my life’s purpose. That is when I vowed that my parents’ kind and generous spirit cannot die and should not end with their death. Their death only ignited the fire sweltering in me. My journey has truly just begun. Albertina’s Angels was birthed, and I have committed to helping these children with their basic needs, but above all, educating the children of El Ciruelito is the goal. Education can be the token out of poverty and despair.  

Albertina’s Angels currently has 34 children, and the goal is to educate each of them with the hope of a future capability to educate the entire village. As I returned to the Dominican Republic the following year, in an attempt to fill my parents shoes, I was touched when Yunior, one of the many village children, who when presented with a new pair of sneakers that where two sizes too big for him-responded, “I appreciate the new sneakers don’t worry my feet will grow into them”. Or Rosbeydi, she was so full of curiosity and inquisition that she wanted to learn how to say “thank you” in English.