Since I was a child, I’ve liked cooking and modifying cooking recipes to give them a very personal touch and somehow, I always convert the recipes into original combinations of ingredients and flavors creating my own particular style of preparing them. On this occasion I want to share with you a recipe, which I’ve given the name of “Maria Amelia”, as a tribute to a great woman. She was an example in many aspects of life and she touched the lives of many people. I’ve used this recipe every Christmas season to prepare “María Amelia Cake”, and whenever I do, I remember how Maria Amelia ate almost the entire cake and with a jovial smile she told me, “You are to blame for making it so good, it’s perfect!, and then she asked ; “Could I take a little piece for Papa?, that as usual he had decided to stay at home”. So, every time I baked, I would make a special cake just for her and since it has been a few days since her passing I want to say that her joy and sweetness will become infused in the flavor of this cake. Even though this Christmas season will be the first of many in which Maria Amelia will not be eating the cake.
MARIA AMELIA CAKE
There are different ways to say goodbye according to the circumstances, the time we will be separated, the place where we are at the time of the farewell. If we say goodbye to a family member, a friend or an acquaintance, it can also be a formal or informal farewell, such as: Goodbye, See You Soon, Take Care, Until Tomorrow, Catch You Later, Bye-Bye. And all forms of farewell cause a degree of pain, but there is only one way to say goodbye to a loved one when they physically leave our side forever. In addition to being painful, it implies implicit faith, love and hope embodied in each of its letters when we say goodbye repeating:
From then on, my daughters’ attitude changed completely, they were almost always in a bad mood and rebellious. They started to answer back with sass every time I scolded them, they rejected the food I was making for them and they also began to complain about everything. Their behavior towards my girlfriend became derogatory and disrespectful. Every time they misbehaved, they ran into their bedrooms and hid and if I followed them, my little naughty girl would get in the way and blocked me, by standing in the middle of the hallway.
The following days were very quiet, the atmosphere in the house was full of joy all day with a big difference, since I took the picture from the attic and placed it in my room, she began to walk freely throughout the house regardless of whether it was day or night. When my daughters did their homework in the living room (sitting on the floor). She was also there by the side of the coffee table, watching as my daughters wrote or drew on their notebooks. When we gathered to share in what we call “Family Home Evening ” she sat on the smallest chair in a corner and smiled as she watched us talk and play.
In my dreams it seemed as if I was floating in the dark. Without knowing exactly where I was, I began to move across until I reached an unknown path where my body was part of the wind that moved the leaves of the trees, the sensation was fascinating because I was floating, the floor covered with stones and suddenly she was holding my hand, her black eyes were wide and round, her white skin with tiny mouth with puckered lips, her nose puffed but perfectly aligned with the shape of her face and her hair a mix of brown and blonde. 
As the days went by my daughters began to complain about hearing strange noises at night, trying to keep them from realizing what was happening I always had a logical answer for every strange event that happened. However, they objected to my answers even though we were comfortable at home, they knew that what was happening was not ordinary.
When I see you, I can’t never tell if I’m awake or asleep. There is a chill running through my body, and I get goosebumps as I see your reflection in the mirror. Although you are not physically by my side, you are the twinkle in my eyes that as photographs they reflect your face in my pupils. Since you came into my life…You became the twinkle in my eyes.
Friendship may arise almost immediately, or it may take years to develop between two or more people who have known each other for a long time. Two of the outstanding characteristics of friendship are that it can become enduring and unwavering, when step by step it has been woven through the service and continuous coexistence to and with one another. Curiously enough friendship can be viewed as feminine, despite the ability to be emotionally born between men and women alike, a feeling that lodges itself directly in the hearts of human beings and perhaps within the beloved pets that live with us. Perhaps its nature, because it includes in it meaning many aspects related to the emotional and sentimental characteristics of a woman. Like, for example: The ability to feel affinity, loyalty, solidarity and love with great intensity towards another human being who is not direct family.
I have heard many different definitions of the word love. I have read a variety of books that define the word love. I have seen many videos of people who claim to have the precise meaning of the word love. All affirm that their definition is true and then they disprove themselves by making a series of contradictions when speaking or expressing with corporal movements the meaning of the word love. For me, the word love is not defined by concepts, laboratory tests or scientific methods, since love is a feeling that lives with the soul and is always demonstrated in all places where those that I care for are nearby.