Flores 1

Flores, Kenia

English 101

Professor Batty

May 10, 2017

An Inspiring Story About A Woman With A Huge Heart

Which character inspired hope or showed more compassion than other characters in

Still Water Saints? Many readers will probably answer this question differently and

choose different characters from the book as all characters face different personal issues

and struggles. I picked Perla Portillo because she inspires others as many people such as

her clients look up to her for help. Perla also faced many personal issues such as she

wasnt happy to just stay home all the time and just be a housewife because she wanted to

discover herself. Perla and her husband werent able to have kids and later on Peras

husband passed away and Perla became widow. It wasnt easy for Perla to deal with

loneliness and become widow until she discovered from a man called Dario, whos a

healer and told her she has the gift to help others.

Perla lived in a town called Agua Mansa with her husband Guillermo and they only has

each other with no family because Guillermo was sterile and unable to have babies. Perla

always had hope and expectations to be able to have babies one day but Guillermo had no

hope and give up on having a family. Perlas struggle and a reason why she felt alone and

would always daydream about herself having kids one day. Until one day Perla met Dario

the healer and Perla walked into his Botanica, a shop that carries traditional religious or
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spiritual remedies which helps people with their personal problems and crisis. Dario was

able to try and help Perlas struggle to have kids with his remedies. As soon as she went

back home to Guillermo, as she explained they had another chance to have kids but

Guillermo had no hope and didn't believe in healers about helping Perla and Guillermo in

having kids. We don't need to try anything. Why do we need kids? I've gotten used to it

just being with us. We don't need any of that we got the two of us (Espinoza 78). As

Perla begs Guillermo to try one more time and explains how she still has expectations

and how lonely she is. I want it. I have nothing. I feel like I'm suffocating here. All day

I'm alone (Espinoza 78).

Reading and learning about Perla shows that she's a woman who's depressed about

being alone and wants to discover herself and wants to know how to cope with her

loneliness as she's tired of being just a housewife. She visits Dario and he realize and he

can sees that Perla had the gift to help and heal people just like himself. Perla starts

crying and starts explaining to Dario, I want family. Not power. (Espinoza 79). For

Perla it's hard to accept that she wasn't meant to be for her to have kids and it was time to

accept it coming from Dario telling her the truth but she had the ability to heal and help

others. Until Perla takes time to herself and accept the fact she won't be able to have a

family and decided to work for Dario as it helped her cope with her depression and

loneliness as Dario explained and trained everything she needed to know to become just a

like Dario and help Perla to discover herself. This experience about working for Dario

and for his shop helped her cope with her personal life.
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Perla working for Dario and inside the Botanica helped her a lot emotionally and helped

her distract herself from her problems she's going through and interacting with her clients

helped her to have someone to talk to. As her clients loved Perla and her service, her

clients continued to come and visit back to the shop for their needs. Perla started to have

connections with others and developed friendships with the next door small markets

owner name Alfonso and with one of her clients Teresa. Perla saw Teresa as her daughter

because of the they both had bond was and help each other and listen to each other. Perla

loved how she had so many people to talk to now that she worked at the Botanica but

everyone around her was temporary. Such as Alfonso had to leave because he has no

business, Dario had to move away and have Perla be in charge of the Botanica and Teresa

worked at a clinic and kept her busy. For Perla to see her friends leave from her, makes

Perla feel alone again and have no one to talk to but Perla working and help other clients

kept her busy and going with the shops business.

At the age of 72, Perla owns the shop, feels lonely, and depressed as she watches her

friends leave and becomes widow after Guillermo gets sick and passes away. Her house

becomes really lonely and she gets scared to be alone at first soon after Guillermo passed

away. This part of Perlas life was very difficult for her to go through and it's not a great

experience to go through. After not having a family and have Guillermo pass away was

very difficult for Perla to go through as she spends a lot of her time alone at the shop and

at her house. Good thing Perla had the shop and clients to cope with her personal life and

people such as Teresa helped her by being there for Perla as a good friend as Perla saw

her as a daughter.
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In real world context learning about the psychological study and affects about women

becoming widow how much it affects their mental health and can become an illness and

how this relates to Perlas story. Study explains it can take up to three years after

becoming a widow it is hard to improve a woman's mental health. Becoming a widow

can destroy a woman's mental health and it can be a critical condition. This cause can

cause a high chance of constantly getting anxiety and depression. Women have twice the

chance to become a widow than men. This study helps me explains and understand about

Perlas situation.

Reading articles about real life context about becoming widow is really hard to cope

with. Such as a woman married to a man in the military isn't easy to get use to and get

worried about any moment she can lose her husband in the middle of war in the military.

A story about Arits Henderson as she explains about it's not easy to be a military wife and

how she becomes a widow after her husband Miles passed away after a helicopter crash

in Iraq. Arits doesn't have family or kids and it this was such a harsh experience for Arits

to go through. This story relates to Perla's story because both stories explains how

widowhood and loneliness. This story relates to Perla's story how Arits doesn't have any

kids either and losing their husbands was everything they had.

Another article I read about a married a couple serving the community as the couple

worked for Dallas Police Department. Katrina and Lorne Ahren were working together

one day as the whole police department was in a middle of a dangerous scene. In the
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scene five police officers were shot and one of them was Lorne and wasn't able to survive

from the injury. It was an unexpected experience for Katrina to lose her husband, her

partner in her job, and become widow. Although she is proud to say her husband was a

true warrior and was very dedicated to his job. This story relates to Perlas story because

it talks about widowhood and serving the community. Perla serves the community with

people coming to her shop to help them with their personal problems and this article

about the married couples serves the community as they protect the community as Dallas

police officers.

Perla is a wonderful woman with a huge heart that likes to help others and people love

her services for the Botanica. Perla is saintlike as people look up to her for their personal

struggles and issues. Many readers would believe someone like Dario for example would

be more saint like because he's the one that teached Perla to become a healer just like him

but I believe that Perla helped improve the Botanica and brought more clients than Dario.

Perla served the community as much as possible like Teresa with her studies in school,

Rodrigo giving him shelter and attention, Lluvia with giving her a chance to draw a mural

because it's something Lluvia loves to do, Rosa with her weight and insecurities and

many others. This is why I believe Perla is saintlike than other characters in the book and

inspires others to have hope.

Cited Sources
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Henderson, Artis. Months After Marriage A Military Wife Becomes An Unremarried

Widow. NPR. January 12, 2014.
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/12/261410855/months-after-marriage-a-military-wife-
becomes-an-unremarried-widow

Wilcox, Sara. First year widowhood most harmful to mental health according to the
sample of 70,000 middle act woman. APA. September 14, 2003.
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/09/widowhood.aspx

Fawzy, Farida. Dallas Officers Wife: He was a true warrior in every sense of the
world. CNN. July 12, 2016.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/us/dallas-officer-lorne-ahrens-wife/