My friend is planning to go to Canada with her husband and stay for three years or more. She is tiny, discrete, with a pale face and eyes like brown marbles, always open in a way that remind me of a frightened rabbit. But behind the first impression you can see a quick mind and what I think is her best asset; that is, an unstoppable perseverance grounded in planning and resourcefulness.

I met her yesterday at the cafeteria where we always see each other, every six months or so. She lives in the outskirts of the city and, like me, is not one to go out much. The place has become our go-to option because, first, we are not very good at choosing fashionable places each and every time we suddenly decide to see each other and, second, the place is usually the only place opened during the weird days we agree to meet. It is a reformed house in the corner of a residential area, with small rooms for private conversations, which are always the kind of talk we like to have, after six or more months of untold experiences.

She was there in one of the most difficult periods of my life, more than ten years ago. Nothing is stronger than the gratitude one feels for those ones who generously give a helping hand, tend to our wounds and give us strength and hope by just being there for a Friday call. That Friday call saved my life, I know for sure.

I am not always the first to contact her, guess that is on me, but we are both busy, we are both always in the brink of something, even if we are not particularly bound to end up in any article about the lives of the fabulously exemplary specimens of the human modern species. But we are linked, I like to believe, by an almost unbreakable bond. She is my sister in so many ways and I appreciate her being alive with a quiet fierceness that fills me with love for this tiny, strong woman. She is leaving in a year or so to Canada. She says, “Lets hope”, “I figure that maybe in a month or so”, “If everything goes right”, and I cannot help but laugh. Of course she will do it. She will accomplish her dream. If not now, soon. If not soon, one day. She is just that kind of person, the type that works every day, step by step, and enjoys the big picture through the small deeds. She is daring and has won by experience a sort of calmness that many are looking for.

I am so happy she is beginning a new project in her life and that her efforts are being rewarded. I am sure she could be in Cambodia or Beirut and I would still feel her close. Like a perennial flower, she keeps blooming and becoming prettier every time I see her. I keep our conversation very close to my heart, and her small frame is a gift I was given by destiny a long time ago.