10 minutes reading‘
Sofía was 16 years old and José was 22 when they met in spring 2007. If there is a suitable date to meet your future partner, this is it. At least that’s what you think in the first years of idealistic love and hopeful encounters.
They were both part of a group of young people organizing spiritual retreats for other young people of their own age. The magic of this September 21st was consolidated when they met for an evening of prayer, which consisted of praying together for several hours. All the young people who had taken part in the retreat were there.
The alleged matchmaker in this story was Sofía’s cousinhe introduced his cousin to one of his friends, but the very proximity to the family, due to his convictions, destroyed the possibility of a loving rapprochement between the two, at the moment there was nothing to indicate that this story would go beyond the formality of the presentation.
“José has black hair and black eyes, but he used light blue contact lenses. At the time, there was a lot of advertising for a promotion where if you bought a certain number of pairs, you would get a free colored pair.” He was wearing them and you could tell they were contact lenses that weren’t his natural color, but there was still something that I liked.”Sofia says.
She doesn’t quite remember how the conversation brought up the fact that she’s a leader—an equivalent of being a Girl Scout, but female—but when José found out, he didn’t hesitate to ask a question: “Is it true that leaders only date Boy Scouts?”
Sofía, sensing that she liked something about him – although she didn’t know what, but she felt it – answered him in a way that left the door open: “It depends on the boy, I don’t just go out with Boy Scouts.”.
That night, Cupid shot his arrow, but was unaware of the detail that Sofía knew well: “In these groups we were in, no one played” with the group members’ cousin, sister or family member, and I was Mariano’s cousin. That’s why we just had a hysterical, We met at meetings and talked a lot where we expressed interest, but it didn’t progress beyond that.”
The following year, José invited her to join a missionary group, and Sofía left the leaders to join the suggestion he made to her: It was the perfect excuse to spend time with the boy she was so attracted to. But she was only 17, and between trips from home to the venue and meetings, she was only able to attend once or twice.
Their lives turned out differently and they no longer saw each other. José got into a relationship with a girl, and Sofía had an occasional boyfriend, but nothing serious or lasting.
After graduating from school, Sofía began studying psychology. One day in 2010 He went to the Cathedral of San Miguel to prepare for a spiritual retreat he wanted to conduct. As he left, he met José at the door of the church, “We greeted each other as if we had never stopped seeing each other. How are you? It’s been so long! And he asked me if I was dating,” Sofía says of that meeting.
She said no, she was single as always and he asked her: “Why aren’t you dating?” Sofía answered without hesitation: “I don’t know, maybe no one will offer it to me.”
“I saw something there, and that’s why I always said things with double meaning, it was natural to me, I wasn’t like that, I was always very calm, but with him I could provoke.”Sofía admits that she always felt comfortable in José’s company.
José told her that he had arranged to meet, they had a warm conversation and a classic “Let’s see when we meet again”, “Yes, come on, one day we have to make up” continued. and everyone went to his own side.
The next day Sofía wrote to him on Facebook: “Nice to have seen you, When will we meet again?”. José’s answer was not long in coming and without hesitation he suggested a meeting three days later.
They arranged to meet at the cathedral door and then went to a café.
They hadn’t even walked half a block at the time José told him that after the day they met, he talked to his girlfriend and ended their relationship. They sat down to drink coffee together, the tension was in the air, but nothing else happened. They agreed to go to the cinema together the following week.
“We watched Inception, the Leonardo DiCaprio film. The movie was terrible, boring, I never understood it and We finally kiss in the middle of the film Minimum, a peak. When we went out, we kissed,” says Sofía.
In her words, José is very charming when he talks, and in conversation he asked her what she wanted from the relationship. “I only had a few dating experiences, as a girl I started dating very quickly and it never worked out. My experience has shown me that I don’t have to become a girlfriend and I told him: I want to be happy.Sofia says.
They started going out together, going out for tea or dinner when he got home from work or she came back from college. They had their first kiss on August 13th and August 30th of the same month. José’s grandmother passed away She wasn’t just any grandmother, she was the one who raised him and, after his mother, the most important woman in his life. “It was a terrible moment for him, we weren’t even together yet and when I told my friends about it they told me not to even think about going to the wake but I was born wanting to go there, so I went. suddenly to him “I love you and he acted like he was distracted like it was something else.”Sofia says. He doesn’t know how, but he ended up accompanying him to the funeral. It was a very special moment to share together, especially when they weren’t together.
Two days later they went to the same cafeteria as usual and officially got engaged because after everything they had been through there was no going back.
Sofía always imagined she would get married youngShe came from a traditional family where living together before marriage was not planned. After three years of dating They went shopping for engagement rings together. But José went looking for them before the agreed date and went to Sofia’s house on their anniversary with a bouquet of flowers and the rings. The day had come and they became engaged.
It wasn’t until the following year that they set a date for the wedding, namely September 2015, after Sofía had already graduated as a psychologist.
“I turned 24 on my honeymoon; he got married when he was 30. We took a trip to Buzios, it was a tough time but we had a wonderful time.” After we got married, we lived together and it was a hard and difficult year. I remember a year later we went on vacation to Bariloche and discussed whether or not we should continue together. We have given ourselves the opportunity to continue betting on the pair“Sofía is sincere.
Her son was born in February 2020. “It was beautiful, it was so longed for and expected. Everything went well for the first month, with the ups and downs, not sleeping at night and other expected problems of motherhood and fatherhood, but everything was beautiful.” Until the pandemic hit and the three of us were very alone at home and completely new, everything became chaos, it was all torture“Sofía remembers how the virus overshadowed the special moment they shared.
Like many others, José started working from home and Sofía, who worked in her mother’s shop, started selling from home. In June José started to feel very bad and They had to undergo surgery for appendicitisHe was alone in the clinic and could not receive visitors due to Covid regulations. His brothers went looking for him the day he was released, while Sofía stayed at home with her four-month-old baby and her mother’s help.
When José came home, he had a high fever and bouts of colds.. Sofía called the clinic to explain the situation, and her brothers-in-law took him back to the sanatorium that same day. Over there They diagnosed an infection and operated on him again.. In between, the Covid tests came back positive and His hospital stay and isolation in a small room lasted 21 days. “When I saw him and hugged him when he came home, they told me that I could be infected and that I had to isolate myself. I was left alone with my baby for two weeks, it was a traumatic experience.” Today I’m telling you and I can’t believe it, I breastfed him with a mask on and I sat him far away from me to eat, it was traumatic.”Sofia repeats.
After this experience, José was desperate. In the following year, the marital relationship became increasingly weak. It got worse and worse: José was in a motorcycle accident on the way to work where he was saved by wearing his helmet: he broke his shoulder blade, rib and collarbone. He was in the hospital for 17 days between operations. The couple experienced another breakup.
“It was a very worrying situation and things were going badly for us as a couple It made us rethink a lot of things and we said: We love each other, let’s move on“Sofía opens her heart.
When the young couple felt it was time to recover, another misfortune happened. In 2023, José’s mother died.
“This year in the month of May We were both very tired and said enough, we got this far and decided to part ways.”Sofia admits. José left the house but they never stopped talking, with a five-year-old son and since both parents were very present, they had to organize a lot around the little one.
When almost a month had passed, they were alone and the feelings did not remain silent: “I miss you”, “Me too”, “I want to come home”, “I love you”, were some of the words they said to each other from the bottom of their hearts.
“Sometimes life surprises us, The context is not the most favorable, but we continue to love and choose each other. Before we got married, we had a wedding reunion and the phrase that was often said to us was this Marriage is a day, but marriage means deciding about yourself every day, and in that we are“Sofia concludes.
If you would like to tell Señorita Heart your story, write to her at corazón@lanacion.com.ar
About The Author
