I read a story about a woman from Cuba who wanted desperately to emigrate to Florida. Her name was Margherita, and most of her family had already escaped the Communist regime. Like hundreds of others aching for freedom in the 1980's they risked floating on makeshift rafts across the ninety mile divide between two countries. Margherita had tried several times, but her efforts only made the local police harass her more fiercely.
Margherita wanted to become a doctor, but such aspirations were futile for her. After one failed attempt to leave, she was punished by losing her job and being forced to wash dishes for a year without pay. Despair creeped into her soul, until she considered suicide.
But her indomitable spirit rose up and she tried once more. She and two friends cobbled together a truck inner tube, wood and some rope, and prayed for safe voyage. Four days of writhing seas and scorching sun left them dehydrated and helpless, until the U. S. Coast Guard found them thirteen miles from shore. They were allowed to join their families and begin a new life.
Margherita threw herself into her studies, working hard, but this time to her own purposes. After a grueling night of prepping for exams, she felt her chest tighten with the memory of all she had suffered in Cuba. Her anger kindled at the disrespect and cruelty she had endured. One officer in particular had harangued her, and on the spur of the moment at two am she decided to call him. Wake him up, as he had done to her many times. When she had been on probation she had often phoned him at
home to check in, and she still knew the number.
When he answered she did not hesitate to speak.
"It's me, Margherita. The young woman you intimidated all those months. I am calling to thank you."
"Thank me?" he was confused.
"Because of your persecution, life was so unbearable that it fueled my determination to leave Cuba. Now I am a medical student in the United States. My dreams are coming true."
The Cuban official let out a long sigh.
"My own life here is very difficult. My own daughter is dying a little each day from liver illness. The doctors say I should give her six aspirin every morning."
His voice began to break.
"You called to make me suffer. But I already suffer as I watch my little girl lose strength. I have no money to buy aspirin and there is none to buy." Now he was sobbing.
Margherita was confused. She mumbled something and hung up. Then she sat for a long time, staring at her books. The last flickers of revenge tried to rise up in her heart, but something else eclipsed them.
The next day she went to the pharmacy. She bought all the aspirin she could afford, and packed it up in a box. Margherita mailed it to the government official in Cuba. With love.
She was free.
