Title: “You learn to live with pain”.
Author: Clara Pérez
2 characters:
- Mother: loses her husband in an accident.
- Daniela: Only daughter who is left fatherless.
ACT I
Setting: Living room of the house
Introduction: the phone rings and the mother goes to answer it, shocked by the news.
Mother (picking up the phone, somewhat distracted): Yes, hello, how? but when did it happen? I’ll be there, thank you.
The mother closes the call in desperation and with tears in her eyes.
Mother (desperate): Daniela! Daniela!
Daniela (frightened, enters the room): What is it, mother?
Mother (approaching her daughter without stopping crying): Your father had an accident and has passed away.
Daniela starts to cry hugging her mother.
Mother: We have to go to the hospital to examine the body.
Both leave hugging and sobbing.
ACT II
Setting: Living room of the house.
Introduction: They both enter dressed in black, their faces swollen from crying, the mother sits on the sofa and Daniela stands in front of her.
Mother (very sad): What a terrible moment, I have no idea what is going to happen now, I don’t know where to start, how did this happen to us?
Daniela (taking her mother’s hands, still standing in front of her): Mom, yes it is horrible, but it is something that happened and that we cannot change. It hurts me a lot for the loss of my father, but we must move forward, you promised him in front of his grave and now we must keep it.
Mother (letting her tears escape): I have no strength daughter, I feel lost.
Daniela (crying next to her mother): And you think I’m not afraid? It hurts me as much as it hurts you mommy, but now let’s think of him, of not failing him and of getting ahead, that wherever he is, he feels proud of his women. You can’t fall, mommy, but who am I leaning on?
Mother (hugging her daughter): You are right Daniela, we owe it to him, he is strong, he is hard and I feel I don’t even have the strength to get up, but we must learn to live with what we have been given, I swear daughter, I will not fail him or you.
Daniela (forcing a smile and caressing her mother’s face): That’s the way to talk, mommy.
They embrace as they let their tears fall.
ACT III
Setting: Living room of the house.
Introduction: Daniela’s mother enters the house calling her with a smile on her lips.
Mother: Daniela!
Daniela (intrigued): What is it, mother?
Mother (smiling): They gave me the job, tomorrow I start working, we won’t be in financial trouble anymore daughter.
Daniela (smiling): You see mother? Things will get better, I am almost done with my career, you will start working, when I graduate, we will be much better off, I know it will never be the same mommy, but we are fighting for him, so he can see that we did it and that he can rest in peace.
Mother (holding back tears): It still hurts a lot daughter, but we couldn’t let ourselves fall, and I want you to feel proud and confident of me.
Daniela: Mother I admire you, you are my hero. I know it hurts, that it is not easy, that at times you fall and it is hard to get up, but you have not stopped fighting. We learn to live with the pain, maybe it will never pass completely, but we learn to live with it, you are the best mother in the world, did you know that?
Mother (hugging her daughter): I don’t know, but if there is one thing I am sure of, it is that God gave me the best daughter.
They both look at each other with tears and a smile and hug each other again, proud to see how the loss made them stronger, and despite the pain they go on.
THE END