A Cuban residing abroad shared a heartbreaking account on TikTok about the disappointment she experienced with whom she considered her best friend in Cuba, just when she needed her the most: during the illness and death of her grandfather.
The user @sheilaperezcuba posted a 49-second video in which she explains that her grandfather spent several weeks in a hospital in Cuba before passing away.
From a distance, and unable to be present, the young woman turned to the person she trusted the most: a friend who studies medicine on the island.
"I asked a person I once considered my best friend, who called my grandfather 'grandpa,' if she could please go see him in the hospital and tell me a little more because she studies medicine, and I was like, 'Please, talk to the doctors and give me a bit more information about what’s happening,'" she recounted.
The request was specific: to visit the elderly man and speak with the doctors to gather information about his health status, something the author could not do for herself from the outside.
The friend did not fulfill that request.
The author does not specify in the video what the exact response was or the reasons given by the friend, but the tone of the narrative clearly reveals a deep disappointment and a definitive break in that emotional bond.
The video concludes with a reflection directed at its audience: "Choose your friends wisely, and not everyone deserves to be called a friend. It's sad but it's true."
This type of experience resonates strongly with the Cuban community abroad facing family losses who cannot be present on the island and must rely on people who remained there to manage emergencies, paperwork, or simply to support their loved ones.
When those people fail, the emotional blow adds to the grief and distance, transforming the loss into a double wound.
It is not the first time that Cuban émigrés vent about the demands and disappointments they experience with people they left on the island, a phenomenon that the mass emigration of recent years has made increasingly frequent and visible on social media.
Other Cuban women have expressed similar feelings, such as those who lament that Cuba takes a part of their soul when they emigrate, or those who have had to publicly defend their decision to support their parents on the island in the face of criticism from others.
@sheilaperezcuba's story is a reminder that emigration not only separates families but also tests—and sometimes destroys—friendships that seemed unbreakable.
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