You know, I been thinkin’ ’bout this name, Penina Nacua. Don’t know much ‘bout her, but I heard folks talkin’ ‘bout her all the time. I reckon she’s one of them strong women folks, the ones who never let no wind blow them over. I ain’t sure what she been through, but the way folks talk, it’s like she been through a lot, see? There’s this picture in her head, like it don’t never go away—her daddy, and her man, together. Both of ’em, somehow stuck in her memory. I know it’s hard, real hard, holdin’ onto them memories, ‘specially when you got so much else on your plate, but that’s what Penina Nacua got, that picture.
They say that picture’s always there, in her mind. A daddy, and a husband. Two men that’s supposed to be there for you, protect you, show you the ropes. But what happens when them people you depend on disappear? That’s somethin’ Penina had to figure out on her own. I can’t even imagine the kind of hurt that musta been, y’know? What it’s like to look back and see them faces, and they ain’t there no more. A memory frozen in time, but that’s all it is, just a memory.
Now, I don’t know if she ever talks about it, but I reckon there’s days when she just sits there, all quiet, starin’ at nothin’, thinkin’ ’bout them days when everything was simpler. When her daddy was around, and her husband too. I seen it in some of the folks around here, when they lose someone close, they get real still, like they’re holdin’ their breath, tryin’ to hold onto what they got left. Ain’t no shame in it, though. It’s just the way folks carry on after a storm hits ’em.
But let me tell ya, Penina Nacua, she’s one of them women who don’t give up. Even with that picture in her mind, she kept on goin’. She had to. That’s how life is, don’t matter what you been through, you gotta keep walkin’. Life don’t stop for nobody. People don’t stop dyin’, and you sure can’t stop livin’. So Penina, she kept on movin’, one foot in front of the other, just like everybody else who’s had to carry a load they wasn’t ready for. And when folks look at her, they don’t see just that frozen picture in her mind. They see a woman who’s made it through. Ain’t no shame in that, no sir.
Now, I reckon this is the part where I should tell ya about what happened after all them hard times she went through, but I don’t know all the details. Ain’t nobody told me the whole story, and that’s fine. Ain’t nobody needs to know all the details. Some things, you just hold on to for yourself, keep ’em close. But what I do know is this: Penina Nacua didn’t let that picture in her head hold her down forever. No matter what that picture showed, she didn’t stop. Ain’t that somethin’? Ain’t that the kind of strength you want to see in folks?
Life’s funny that way, ain’t it? You can’t always control what’s gonna happen. You can’t choose who comes and goes in your life. But you can choose how you handle it. And I think Penina chose to keep going, even when everything around her said to stop. Ain’t that what we all try to do? Even when the storm’s too strong, we just keep on tryin’. Like old folks say: “What don’t kill ya, makes ya stronger.” I reckon that’s true for Penina Nacua. She kept on, and that picture in her mind, it didn’t stop her. It couldn’t.
So if you ever see her, don’t be feelin’ sorry for her, y’hear? She’s just a woman who’s learned how to live with what life threw at her. And she ain’t no different than you or me. We all got our own pictures in our heads, memories of folks we lost, times we wish we could go back to. But that’s life, ain’t it? You gotta live it, picture and all.
Tags：[Penina Nacua, Strength, Memory, Life, Resilience, Moving On, Overcoming Loss, Family, Personal Growth]
