Sister - Sofia Moyano

What a hard task to put Sandra in words. I’ve been avoiding this moment all week thinking if I let time pass by, something better would come out, but it seems it’s going to be hard, so I’m just going to try… Sandra is the kind of person you have a connection with right away, spontaneous, tender, loving, open and frontal. You get along with her from scratch, and if that’s not the case, check yourself out, for you are definitely the problem. 

For me, she was a sister from the very first moment we met. It was in Punta del Este and as soon as she walked up the stairs, she already had the whole Moyano family in her pocket, just by naming each one of us with her usual smile; it felt as if she already knew each one of us. Maybe Hernan helped a little here!

I know I’m not a closed person either, so it was kind of obvious this was going to be the outcome, but even the “toughest” one in the family, as Cata says, adored her from the very beginning.

Since then, so many stories…. So many trips… so many moments… It was over the phone that we found out they were getting married! And in Vegas!!! Of course that idea had to be Sandra’s!!! Over the phone as well, we found out she was sick for the first time. That was the first toughest moment in my personal life. My God what an attitude!! She was the one who from the very beginning started setting the mood with which this thing had to be dealt with. She has been for me a living example of how life has to be taken, lived or devoured, for that’s what she did. I will never forget something she said to me when I became a widow from one day to another “I’ve learned cancer means nothing for we can be here today and gone tomorrow”; she would always pick the right teaching from each situation. How can we forget the trip to Italy! We rented three cars and we would communicate by handy from car to car. We wanted to go to Peruggia, which I don’t know if we finally did, but the point is she would be all trip long saying “Peruuuuggia” over the handy, to the point where I can still hear her over the handy saying it with Cata. 

Last year Nan said Sandra wanted me to go visit her in NC for a couple of days. I never got to tell her, but I’m sure she knows what an honor it was that she needed me there, that she wanted me to be with her for a while. Jaime, Ilene, I want to let you know your daughter is out of this world! Both your daughters are, for one could have never been what she is without the other and without you two. 

These last days, talking with her, telling her how I felt, how much I admired her, letting her know everything had turned out to be fine, all because of her, of her energy, her spirit, her joy for life, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “All this time I thought it was the other way around, I thought you all gave me the strength to deal with it”. I’m happy I could clear this out with her! It was she who worked, searched, battled, tried and set everything so that when she was gone, we would feel what we feel today. Pain? Of course!!!!! For she is no longer physically with us, but there is this kind of inner peace that let’s us all know she is all right, for she was all right!! Even at the last moments with her WOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOO, mocking death as Ramin well said, for she was ready for it and she was already embracing it. A couple of days before leaving, Ynez, Delfi, Sandra and I were on her bedroom and she decided it was time to give away her clothes. Can you believe this was done while she was dancing “funky town”, enjoying what she was actually doing? She was care-free, non-attached, she was ready! She had been planning this trip, and by knowing her you could say she was mischievously waiting for it… what an amazing creature!!! 

The only thing I can say to be fare to her is that I LOVE HER WITH ALL MY HEART! I ADMIRE HER MORE THAN ANY PERON I KNOW and I WILL DEFFINETELY MISS HER…. So, I invite you all to gather once a year, on her birthday at the Truji’s and celebrate SANDRA… or in other words… to CELEBRATE LIFE!