I met Bertha Alicia as a young mother who had a quiet six year-old, an energetic three year-old and an eight day old baby. I worked with her husband Esteban in crop diversification as a Peace Corps volunteer. No one expected us to be friends 37 years later and yet here we are.

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I did field work for my dissertation in Guatemala and lived with berta And Esteban. And so I learned a great deal about how man and women relate to one another. Bertha was in my mind, the ideal wife. She could anticipate her husband’s needs before he even knew he had them. She knew he would be hungry in the fields and would bring him lunch. She knew he would be thirsty upon his return to the house and tried to always have a lemonade ready for him to drink. She washed her family’s clothes upon a rock in the river and later in life had the luxury of a pila next to the house with water from a well. She herself discovered the miracle of a natural spring on Esteban’s land and this has been a godsend to them.

Bertha had three children, and she has raised perhaps six. She loves them all. And worked for them all. When I first met her she would grind the corn on the stone metate and years later the village got a motorized grinder but still she would pass the maza through the metate at least one more time before we made tortillas. That was just the beginning of lunch and the point is she had energy beyond measure and a smile whenever I saw her until my visit in January.

When I visited last month they told me that Bertha had been to the nurse and the nurse had diagnosed her as being malnourished and said she might need to get some tests from a doctor. So she drank rehydrating serums while I was there and tried to eat. Two days after I left, they took her to the hospital and found that she had a bladder infection, anemia, helio bacteria, and dengue she returned home but was unable to recover and was taken back within two days, and then again within five days which was yesterday

I love these people without measure. But my bank account does not. My economic circumstances are finite and I cannot carry the full expense and so I must ask for help.

We don’t know how much she will need or how long this situation will last. We expect her to be in the hospital for at least a week. The costs that far are about $1000. We need help on meeting her care costs and making sure she can maintain her health when she leaves.