It was June and the world had shut down. For months, Peruvian jewelry artisan, Nancy Quispe, had been confined to a house with her daughter and her husband. Their workshop struggled under the weight of the pandemic, but they managed to keep it afloat, filling orders that trickled in.
To make an already difficult situation more precarious, Nancy was pregnant. Her fears about the virus mingled with her fears about their dwindling business and what it would mean to bring a new life into a world gripped by the pandemic.
Come June, two months ahead of schedule, Nancy began to feel contractions. The problem? They lived far from the hospital and, because of curfew, there were no cabs on the streets. "I was afraid that my baby could be born at any time,” she says, “so we went to the nearest police station. We were very lucky to find a patrol car on duty that took us to the hospital."
Her newborn baby had the good sense to wait until they arrived at the hospital before making his way into the world. "It is a day I will never forget,” Nancy says, because “I came back to life in that instant."
For his name, Nancy chose the word “Noam,” which means, “he who brings love and sweetness.” He arrived as a beacon of hope for Nancy, a place of calm and hope in a world of uncertainty and challenge.
She attributes her resilience during this period to the steadfastness of her family. "In the darkest moments, I found peace in my husband and my [eldest] daughter who have been the pillars of my strength during all this time."
This Mother’s Day, we celebrate Nancy Quispe and all the mothers around the world who find the courage to keep going, to set one foot in front of the other, to show up for their families, day in and day out. |
