Penguins and stardust

One of my favorite people I've met so far in Antarctica is my co-worker, Doug. Doug was an animal trainer in Denver before coming down here. He trained tigers, sea otters, and other kinds of big animals that might like human flesh. One day, Doug and i were breaking down the line and I was teasing him just a little about a girl named Kelly that he was spending more and more time with. There was something serious about the way he took the teasing, and after a little while, he told me that the girl that he loved the most and was going to be his wife, Ashley, died three years ago. Doug also told me that his sister named her third child in memory of Ashley and the child died in her fifth month of life.
We talked about grief and how precious life is...we talked about thirty three year olds feeling ancient...we talked about how maybe, just maybe, the human heart's capacity for love might be immeasurable...At these times, I always talk about my grandmother, abuela Blanca. My abuela always told me that the human heart is capable of great great love. She truly believes that her first husband had something to do with her meeting and falling in love with her last husband, whom she spent 20 happy years with...she just knows that this is true...So I threw that out there to Doug...that maybe, just maybe, he can explore this new relationship and it might be what Ashley would want for him...maybe...or not...who knows the ways of the world...but maybe...

A few weeks later, the morning crew and the bakers were at stretch break (we all have to stretch two times a day for fifteen minutes as a group). We were stretching and talking about penguins. I told everyone that my grandmother had a penguin. The story goes as follows:
When my grandfather had died, my mother and my aunt were in the United States and my abuela lived all alone in Uruguay. My grandmother says that this was the hardest period of her life and that she's never felt such sharp and present loneliness.
I think her heart told her that she needed to be by the sea, so she spent the winter in Punta del Este, a town on the Atlantic. Every morning, she would go on a walk to the port and back. On a cloudy day, a man called out to her from the pier and asked her if she'd please buy a penguin from him. Apparently, they had come in on an iceberg from antarctica (this happens sometimes) and this man had one left. My grandmother bought the last penguin and named him pengui.
Pengui brightened my abuela's life--In particular, he became my abuela's ambassador to the outside world. It can be impossible to connect with people when a heart is shattered making grief even more lonely.
Because of pengui, strangers would come up to her to see the penguin and ask her questions about the penguin--She quickly became the penguin lady and slowly but surely, she didn't feel as alone.

This is a family story.
Part of the narrative of my family that I have never once questioned and took as true.
These kinds of things happen in my family.
These kinds of things happen to my abuela.

Nobody at stretch break believed me.
One person said "you know, I really want to believe that story"
another person said "it's a beautiful story, are you sure it's not a metaphor for something else?"
somebody else said "how can you believe that!?!"

I have never once questioned this family story.
The first time I doubted it was in my thirty second year.
When I got home I asked Lucas if he thought it was true and he said yes (he heard it straight from my abuela, so maybe that's why).

I called my mom and told her that I needed to know the truth: was the story about pengui true. She said she swore it was..
I talked to my abuela and she swore by the bones of her dead sister that it was true (you don't swear by people's bones in my family unless you really mean it)

A few days ago, Doug and I were washing dishes. Doug said that Ashley's birthday was the day before and Kelly had gotten him a stuffed penguin to commemorate the day. Doug said he named it pengui--for my grandmother--
I said: "Doug, it's a true story!"
he said: "I never doubted it wasn't".