All the old familiar places...

Back home.

Baltimore, Maryland

May 30th, 2025

Dear Reader,

We left Buenos Aires on a cold, grey, and rainy day. When we landed the next morning in Baltimore, it was cold, grey, and rainy.

We had spent two nights in Buenos Aires before heading for the U.S. On the first morning, my mother and I went for a walk. The air was crisp, and the sun peaked through the clouds.

Walking in the park. A statue of O’Higgins, a Chilean general who helped liberate Chile from Spanish rule.

By the second morning, the day we were to depart, the weather had turned. My mother and I weathered our way to church, arriving drenched from the waist down at Our Lady of Pilar.

But we were glad we’d gone for a last prayer together. We wouldn’t be seeing each other again till Christmas, si Dios quiere.

Back in Baltimore, I retraced my steps to Federal Hill Park, the old loop I used to go on just about every morning. A small monument was surrounded with tiny flags for Memorial Day.

Federal Hill Park.

Adrien and I were struck by how green everything is, a contrast to the landscapes we’ve gazed upon these last several months.

We found all the old familiar places just as we’d left them; the people seemed unchanged too…the local café with the friendly Turkish owner, the local steakhouse where the bartender, wearing a tuxedo and sporting a blonde man bun, remembered just how we liked our Manhattan, the park across the way with the statue of dignified Severn Teackle Wallis, the magnolia tree outside our window now had two huge flowers in full bloom, the dove called gently to his love….

Severn Teackle Wallis, a Baltimore lawyer and politician, on East Mount Vernon Place.

It’s good to be home.

More to come.

Abrazos,

Mariah