I returned to my paternal family’s town a year later, same date.

My aunt had learned that Filomena had dropped the Saint Antony figure when trying to straightening him up from standing on his head position. Filomena’s daughter, Clarita, was 22 and already considered a spinster. To stand Saint Anthony on his head and burn some candles was Filomena’s duty so her daughter would find a husband.

But Saint Anthony broke in three big pieces and many splinters. So the saint could not be glued back together.

Clarita was confused and asked her mother what kind of a sign was that. What was the meaning of the fall of the Saint? She felt that something inside her had broke too. She felt that she needed to be put together, too.

Time would demonstrate that she really needed to be put together at that very moment and no later.

Also Prudencia, Filomena’s spinster sister, told her to beware of the consequences of the fatal accident to the saint. After all she had rejected three marriage proposals in spite of her San Antonio being on his head for more than 30 years. But, she said, she honored her own name, Prudencia, and not the saint.

After San Antonio broke, Filomena’s daughter disappeared from town, exactly three months later, in the company of Floro, a dark-skinned and handsome phone company salesman. Saint Anthony had broken in 3 pieces, my aunt insisted.

Prudentia was right.