PALMVIEW — Maria De La Luz Puente stood on top of her porch steps tending to her plants which were individually potted and placed on the wooden guard rail in the cool 60-degree weather Tuesday morning.
“It’s getting cold, isn’t it,” she said in Spanish, more so as a statement rather than a question.
Puente, a 67-year-old grandmother, is the sole caretaker of her five grandchildren who live with her in their small one-bedroom apartment in Palmview.
Her son, the children’s father, was deported about five years ago and is currently living in Reynosa while their mother, who lives in Edinburg, left her kids and family to marry another man, according to Puente.
Puente says she doesn’t visit the children, but does call from time to time, though the kids aren’t particularly enthusiastic when they speak to her or when she reaches out.
When their mother does call, Puente lets the kids know and tries to pass them the phone, but they tend to brush off that extended olive branch.
“To them, I am their mother now,” Puente said.
The oldest child, Bryan, is 15 years old and attends the local high school, while his younger siblings are all in elementary school.
Their cozy apartment is warm but lacks the space needed to house a family of six.
Bryan sleeps on a sofa in the living room, Puente sleeps on a makeshift bed of pillows on the floor and the rest of the children share one bed in the bedroom.
Puente recently received a mattress base as a donation and plans on placing it where the sofa is so Bryan could have an actual bed to sleep on, but she doesn’t know where to move it.
“I’ll probably toss it outside to see if anyone wants to take it,” she said.
Puente came to the United States years ago and would work in the fields picking onions, melons, grapefruit and sometimes mandarins. She currently doesn’t have a stable job, but makes ends meet by having garage sales and cleaning people’s homes whenever possible.
She believes she suffers from a hernia on her back from years of working in the fields and has a lump on the back of her lower neck as proof.
Working and running errands is also difficult for her because she doesn’t have a vehicle and relies on family and friends to drive her around when possible.
The 67-year-old used to have a car, but the cost of maintenance became overbearing and she figured she was better off without one.
“Sometimes I do get impatient because [the apartment] is so small,” Puente said. “But then I tell myself, ‘No, I’m happy here, I’m calm, I’m happy.’”
A few friends and relatives helped the family put up a Christmas tree and decorations because the kids like celebrating the holiday. The tree stands next to one of two dressers placed in the living room, one of which has several drawers collapsed in their slots.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the kids had to do school work from home. Puente says the school offered laptops and desks for them to be set up in the apartment, which she says was manageable.
Puente doesn’t complain about her living situation with her grandkids and feels blessed just to be healthy. She thanks God for having been safe from the virus and doesn’t speak much about some of the issues she’s facing without being asked.
“My refrigerator doesn’t work,” Puente said quietly. “It’s been about two weeks since it stopped working.”
She says if she buys food like ham, it would be only for the day of and the day after, using a can of milk she used for coffee that morning as an example. The grandmother will cook the children’s meals for both days and avoids buying food that could become spoiled quickly.
Even so, the grandmother only asks for winter clothes for her grandkids as well as blankets for the coming winter.
“Well, all I say is that as long as we aren’t sick, we can still get by,” Puente said. “I am very blessed because we’re all healthy.”
Donations for this family, and others, can be made by contributing to the Spirit of Christmas campaign through the United Way of South Texas. They can be reached at (956) 686-6331 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Due to COVID- 19, only monetary donations are being accepted for families in need.
