There are farewells that cannot be captured in words, gestures that only the deepest love can conceive.
When Aniurmat Padilla Domínguez lost her youngest son just two months ago, she found a way to honor him that moves those who know her: she took him to the sea, his place in the world, for his "final dive."
An emotional audiovisual piece published on Facebook captures his story and has touched the hearts of thousands of people.
Eduardo, affectionately nicknamed "Dado," was 18 years old when he passed away. He was a biology student, a volunteer at the National Aquarium of Cuba, and a young man passionate about the sea, caving, and rappelling.
The images in the video show a urn placed on the seabed, surrounded by flowers and a small headstone, in an intimate ceremony that her mother describes with a serenity that breaks the heart.
"For me, Dado is not dead; Dado went to do his final dive," says Aniurmat in front of the camera, wearing her son's hat.
That hat has its own story. A week before he died, the doctor informed Dado that he would have to shave his head.
The young man, like young people do, went out to buy it right away. He didn't get a chance to use it.
Aniurmat wears it now, every day, as if that gesture could keep him close.
“This little hat, he gave it to me a week before: 'Chama, next week I’m going to shave your head, go buy a hat.' And he, you know how young people are, bought it, but he couldn’t use it, he couldn’t see it, but I wear it,” he recounted.
But Aniurmat's tribute to his son doesn't stop there. Dado dreamed of the Festival Pa'Cuba someday reaching the National Aquarium, the institution where his mother has been working for nearly thirty years and where he himself was a volunteer.
That dream came true in the fifth edition of the festival, held this summer, but he was no longer able to see it.
It was Aniurmat herself who made it possible: she personally contacted the organizing committee of Grupo Palco, facilitated the partnership, and ensured that the event was held for the first time at the Aquarium, breaking the tradition of taking place at Pabexpo or the Pabellón Cuba.
"I located the people from the organizing committee, and nothing happened; we forged an alliance between Grupo Palco and the Aquarium. They came, visited us, and this is an opportunity we have as an aquarium in what we are looking at today," he explained.
The National Aquarium has been going through a severe deterioration crisis for years, with its workforce reduced from 299 to only 65 workers, minimum wages, lack of basic supplies, and over a year without offering dolphin performances.
The partnership with Grupo Palco has enabled the waterproofing of roofs, the restoration of restrooms, and the revitalization of cafeterias, in what Aniurmat calls a "blessed revolution."
She arrived at that place at the age of twenty, in 1997, after studying civil engineering, and she never left. She has watched the Aquarium fade and then come back to life, and today she experiences it as a double tribute: to the space she built with her own hands and to the son who wanted to work there.
"He wanted to work at the aquarium, and since he liked Pa'Cuba, I said, 'He will be here,' and here he is," Aniurmat concluded.
"Dado is in the sea. We're taking him diving," she declared.
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