The poor Pancho

By:Ernesto Pantaleón Medina / Televisión Camagüey

His name was Francisco, but in the neighborhood all they called him Pancho. He was a popular man, of those to who all greet with affection, due to his jovial character, his prompt smile and his disposition of helping anyone to solve those small problems that affect the homelike operation with insistence.

That it was damaged a team, or it is necessary to paint a wall, or to carry out an electric connection, there Pancho was, and between jokes and jokes he left resolved the setback.

But a defect put a dark cloud in my neighbor's life: the drink, not for the very common fact of ingesting some that another glass, but for the frequency with which it was given to what called for some strange reason his "whiles friends."

First the wife, then who knew him closely, they noticed him that a dangerous road traveled and in slope, but he didn't assist to any reason , centered in an apparent enjoyment.

He lost everything: the relationships with the neighbors, for his freshness, and more than a sour discussion he had it as drunk main character; in the work the reiterated absences forced to the administration to take severe measures, after many alerts and calls to the order, lastly, the divorce arrived, and the trauma made worse that that was the main cause: the alcohol.

The slope became had itched, and it was frequent to find dirty Pancho, with hallucinated eyes, in any corner, murmuring incoherent sentences, or throwing insults against everything and against all.

He received countless help, from the near relatives, or the acquaintances, until the state institutions in charge of the attention to the social cases and even the reclusion in a especialized center …all in vain, each apparent victory took to a relapse, for lack of own will.

Some days ago a news shook the neighborhood: The good Pancho had just died in a hospital institution, to the 42 year-old age, after reconciling with the wife, the children and siblings, and count that in the last instant he sketched a smile, poor person copy of that frank and kind expression that earned him so much sympathy.