Juan never thought he would ever see the woman who had taken care of him when he was a child, in South America. By dint of tenacity, the Swede was however able to hug Ana again.
Juan, 51, is a pastor in Andalusia, southern Spain, where he lives. But he was born in Sweden, into a family of missionaries who traveled the world. When he was born in the 1970s, his parents joined a labor congregation in Cochabamba, Bolivia. There, the very young Juan, as well as his brothers and sisters, are entrusted to a nanny, Ana. She had just lost her child to heart disease. So she took care of Juan as if he were her own son. “I spent my life in her skirts, confides the pastor. She did not need to watch me, I was always by her side.”
“She called me my “Swedish Cholo” and I called her “my girl”, he continues. Since our departure from Bolivia, I have kept something very deep rooted in me, linked to this country and to Ana, of course. These are my roots, what! He didn’t think that these very strong feelings would ever be remembered by him. And yet… Five years ago, Juan had to go to Lima in Peru, a country neighboring Bolivia, for a conference. As he set foot on the mainland for the first time since childhood, a special impression came over him.
The septuagenarian, in a precarious situation, sold sweets for a living
“A lot of things in my soul started to stir. I had to go back to Bolivia.” He then took advantage of two days off during the congress to take a plane ticket from Lima to La Paz, then caught a bus for Cochabamba. He visits the places of his childhood, like his school or the house where he grew up. “That’s when I knew I wanted to find Ana,” says Juan.
It will take him five years… Juan was worried about not being able to find his nanny and confided in his mother who helped him in his investigation: “I started to carry out research to find out what she had become. She must have been 78. Was she still alive? Where did she live? Did she remember me? I ended up finding her son, Daniel. And I learned that she sold candy to live. A rather precarious situation which touched me”, details the pastor.
To immortalize the reunion the pastor asks Ana’s son to film the scene
In secret, he and Daniel organize her visit to Yacuiba, the city where the septuagenarian now lives, just on the border with Argentina. “We had agreed not to tell his mom, explains Juan. He had just told her that someone would come to visit him without giving him more details.”
To immortalize the reunion, the pastor asks his son to film the scene. Ana didn’t recognize him right away. But when her former protege told her: “I don’t know if you recognize me, I’m Juanito”, the granny broke down in tears. Forty-five years have passed, they have had plenty to tell each other. Juan has already shown her pictures of his own family. He also gave him a sum of money collected within his congregation, in Spain, in order to help him financially.
“Ana has come back into my life, she will stay there as long as we both can!”
Full of humor and mischief, the nanny then began to tell anecdotes about him. They laughed as if they had just left each other. And stayed together for the few days the pastor stayed in Yacuiba. “Ana has come back into my life, she will stay there as long as we both can!” he confides.
Ana and Juan had an extraordinary experience. But the adventure did not stop there. Posted on TikTok, the video of their reunion went viral: it has been viewed more than 3 million times! All the South American media were interested in this moving story. The former nanny even appeared on Bolivian television, her dream! She moved the whole country during the interviews she gave on the local public channel. The two have also decided to meet again very soon and, above all, Ana wants to meet Juan’s wife and children.