“I DREAM OF A HOUSE IN FEAST OF FRATERNITY EVERY DAY, ALL SHARING THE SAME CUP AND THE SAME BREAD”
As a community of Santo Domingo de Guzmán- Quito, we share through the phrase of this song, what it meant to us to accompany our sister Dolores Otazu from Sunday, June 19, the day she arrived in Quito, until Sunday, October 15, when her life ended.
Dolores used to sing the song mentioned above with the people in the different pastoral activities she did in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. We believe that, for us and for her, the content of the song became a reality during the four months that her illness lasted.
Sharing with her the pain of the fragility of her illness and seeing that every day she was dying, although she dreamed and hoped to go to Spain to meet with her family, especially with her sister Teresa, whose health was delicate. This situation, implied for us to remain at times without words because we knew that her condition was very delicate and irreversible since her cancer was developing by leaps and bounds.
The time we lived with Dolores in the community was for us an experience of sisterhood-fraternity, supporting one another through our faith in Jesus; through the sisters of the Provincial Council and all the sisters who, from near and far, encouraged us with their messages and prayers.
We experienced the proximity of the family with the presence of her brother Ramón, a Dehonian religious, who stayed with her for a month, conversing with her, praying the rosary, entrusting herself to the Virgin of Ujué to whom she was very devoted and listening to some reflections of the Gospel.
Close Friends and collaborators of mission from Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas visited her, with whom she talked for a long time and gave them recommendations for pastoral work and their family life.
In the last week it was difficult to see how her life was fading rapidly, “there is nothing more to be done for her” were the words of the doctors on Friday, October 12. The hours that passed were long and sad, but we knew that she had fought to the end as the strong woman of faith that she always was.
We are left with the grateful memory of her life given during 47 years in Ecuador in the mission, formation, in the service of the Provincial Councils, of what was the Ascension Nicol Province, and in the Religious Life of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas; we are also left with the satisfaction of having spared no effort in her care.
To conclude we make our own the words of the song “together sharing the same cup and the same bread”, that meant this experience with Dolores who already enjoys God’s presence.
