COINCIDENCES ARE WHAT ALLOW GOD TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS Albert Einstein

  My life was never immune to coincidences, although I did not call them God, but Tutelary Angel. The year was 1973, the year Chilean President Salvador Allende was ousted by a military coup organized by Richard Nixon and Chilean General Augusto Pinochet. But this writing has nothing to do with South American politics but with one of the most significant coincidences that took place in my life. The day was warm because the Buenos Aires winter was already over; a gentle breeze was blowing and the sun was warming the city battered sidewalk tiles. I had gone with my boyfriend to a garage located on Calle Paraguay; he had to pick up his car to go to the Ezeiza airport. Paradoxically, the fact that my boyfriend was going to Europe made me happy because our relationship was at its end, and I was eager to explore new horizons. After leaving the garage I began to walk down Paraguay toward Avenida Alem to return to work. I hadn't even walked ten steps when suddenly a horn began to blare repeatedly behind me. When I turned around, among the endless line of vehicles I saw a red car whose driver was waving at me. The driver was a journalist who worked in the same company where I was a translator; although I had already decided to meet him in some way, I had not yet found the opportunity. But that day, with my boyfriend about to leave the garage behind me, I decided not to miss the opportunity to get into that red car. To make a long story short, suffice it to say that on that day, on busy Paraguay Street, what would become my thirty-year marriage was born. The fact that said cycle has come to an end does not matter; when life cycles close it’s because other cycles will open. Actually, we are not the ones who decide what cycles to close; the Tutelary Angel shows us the way.