There Are No Goodbyes

Starting first as a poet, Gloria M. Rodriguez wrote many poems about memories of her parents' love for each other and their family. The poems developed into short stories of their challenges brought about by war and why they came to finally make their home in the United States after the Spanish Civil War. After some encouragement from many friends and finally a request from a niece, she gathered all the memories and notes made through the years and put them into true chronological order so as to tell a story of truth and what love and family came to mean between two people caught in life's constant challenges. Notes and comments came from conversations with her parents through their years together and information acquired from various family members. Along with maps showing the paths taken by her parents, then researching and taking them herself to see what it must have been like to exit war torn Spain in 1938, it helped to tell a true story with very little fantasy. Gloria tries to paint a picture of culture from two distinct continents during the years of 1913 to 1940 and beyond until their deaths. The story reveals customs of its times and the nonsense of war brought about by frustration, politics and the economy during this period. Above all, it has shown true love can conquer all of life's challenges. History has revealed the ugly truth of what happened during this period, but this true story tells the love two people had during this period and until their deaths.