The Miracle of the Golden Hens: The Story of a Fortunate Farmer

Infamous laughter

The bank employee could not hold back a laugh, despite his efforts to maintain composure. As Roberto left the office, he also heard the stifled laughter of the secretary, who had been listening to the whole scene. It was one of the worst humiliations he had ever experienced. Roberto and his wife Maria were a kind elderly couple beloved by the residents of the small town where they lived. Two people whom everyone considered friendly and respectable, certainly not deserving of suffering like that. Still less to be laughed at, especially in the face of the despair of those who cannot comprehend such hardship.

Infamous Laughter

Two humble people

Throughout their lives, they lived by farming, selling and consuming what the land and the planet offered them. They led a simple existence, devoid of great luxuries, not in absolute misery, but with a poverty that sometimes made it difficult even to buy new clothes. One copes with life as one can, but they did not complain about it and did not feel deprived of anything: they had everything they felt they needed. Yet, as a young man, Roberto had good land to cultivate with his father.

Two Humble People

Living off agriculture : nothing out of the ordinary

According to the FAO, more than 60 percent of the world’s population depends on agriculture for its survival. With the global population currently around 7 billion and growing to 9 billion by 2050, it is estimated that about 12 percent of the available land area, or about 1.5 billion hectares, will be devoted to agricultural crops. Most of this land, 90 percent, is in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, with half of it concentrated in seven countries-Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Sudan, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia. Agriculture, therefore, represents an essential activity for humanity and deserves to be recognized as a noble work, worthy of the utmost respect for those who practice it.

Living From Agriculture Nothing Strange

Land for rent

Both worked hard and earned well, so well that they could afford anything. However, because of a deception, they lost everything. A man showed up asking to rent their land, offering a decidedly advantageous sum. Convinced by the offer, they decided to accept. For the first six months everything seemed to go smoothly: the man paid on time, never skipping a week. But after this period had passed, the land suddenly stopped producing anything.

Lands For Rent

Believed to be drought

Drought is generally defined as a period of unusually dry weather that is prolonged enough to cause serious consequences, such as crop damage and water shortages. However, there is no universal definition, as its causes can vary. “Drought doesn’t just depend on the absence of precipitation or high temperatures,” explains David Miskus, drought expert and meteorologist at NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Climate Prediction Center. “Factors such as overuse of resources and overpopulation play an equally significant role.”

It Was Thought To Be The Drought

Causes of infertility

Soil depletion occurs when nutrients essential for fertility are removed without being replenished and when conditions necessary to maintain soil health are not maintained. This phenomenon results in reduced agricultural yields. In agriculture, soil depletion is often caused by over-intensive cultivation and poor resource management. As of 2008, one of the areas most affected by this problem are tropical areas, where soil nutrient content is already naturally low. It is therefore reasonable to assume that poor management of the lands by the humans who had leased them has compromised their productivity, deteriorating land that was once fertile.

Causes Of Infertility

Early problems

This had deeply alarmed Robert’s father, who relied on the man in the hope of making the fields fertile again. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done: the land was now hopelessly compromised and the family was forced to sell everything as quickly as possible. As you can imagine, it was a very hard blow. Roberto’s family found themselves tightening their belts more and more, until they could not even put lunch and dinner together. Only later did the truth come out. The man, who had initially presented himself as an ally, was actually part of a larger plot, orchestrated to take land from poor, honest farmers for the sole purpose of deceiving them.

The First Problems

The Discovery

At the time, many companies aspired to take over farmers’ land to build stores and shopping malls. However, most farmers refused to sell, deeply attached to their land and the value it represented. To overcome this resistance, companies resorted to devious strategies aimed at making that land useless and unproductive. Among the methods used was hiring fake farmers charged with deliberately damaging the lands. Thus, Roberto and his father found themselves unwitting victims of a corrupt and ruthless system, a cruel mechanism that had overwhelmed them without mercy.

The Discovery

The trick used in the deception

After a few weeks, the trick had been discovered and they wanted everything back. But by then it was too late. They also relied on a lawyer, but even that did nothing to change things. All was lost. Only he and his father remained, forced to look for a place to stay after that debacle. Even their house had been taken away, as stipulated in the contract. It was a dramatic moment, one that no family would ever want to face, but one that unfortunately can strike anyone, without warning.

The Trick Used For Deception

The help from the people nearby

Many people offered to help them, as they were loved by the community and well-liked by everyone in town. The father was able to obtain a small plot of land to cultivate for himself. Robert had lost his mother to a serious incurable disease, a devastating loss that he believed was insurmountable. However, he was wrong. The death of his beloved mother was an immeasurable pain, impossible to compare to anything else, but the situation he was experiencing at that moment was, without a doubt, the most humbling and difficult he had ever faced.

Help From Nearby People

Donated land

The small piece of land had been donated by a wealthy landowner in the area, who had suffered the same injustices from the system in the past but had managed to get back up. Knowing well the pain the family was going through, he had decided to help them. Although the new property was not even close to their old land, it still represented a new beginning, a roof over their heads. For Roberto and his father, that was enough. With determination, they immediately set to work to rebuild their lives.

A Donated Land

Many clothes from many noble hearts

Some even offered clothes and food to help them as much as possible. Their new reality was a world away from their previous one: poverty was not a choice, but a condition imposed by cruel deception at the expense of innocent people. Roberto’s father resumed working grueling shifts, waking up every day at five in the morning. However, his health was not the best. Depression over the loss of land, combined with a lack of money, had driven him to work less and less, unable to react strongly. That devastating blow, together with the humiliation and mortification he had suffered, had deeply scarred the no-longer-young man, compromising both his physical and mental health.

Many Clothes From Many Noble Hearts

Roberto grows up

Roberto, now a teenager, found himself caring not only for the land but also for his father, working twice as hard as before. He supervised every detail, aware that his father, often distracted by deep depression, made frequent mistakes. As time went on, father seemed to lose all will to do, until the day he never got out of bed: the disease had taken him away. According to the family doctor, depression and stress had contributed to his death. The pain that had struck Roberto’s father’s heart had been so intense that it had stopped him. Sometimes, great sorrows can lead to such tragic endings.

Roberto Grows

Depression

Roberto’s father suffered from depression. This condition can manifest itself in different ways from person to person. Depression can interfere with daily activities, causing loss of time and reduced productivity, as well as negatively affecting personal relationships and aggravating some chronic illnesses. An estimated 8.1 percent of adults aged 20 and older have experienced episodes of depression within two weeks in the past three years. It is important to understand that feeling down is occasionally a part of life. Everyone faces sad and upsetting events, which are inevitable.

Depression

Sadness

Roberto was overwhelmed with sadness. Despite all his efforts, he had not been able to restore his father to his former prosperity. Every day he saw him getting worse, and to try to lift him up, he had set himself the goal of growing more and more, of getting better. But the results were not coming. In the end, life had inflicted another harsh disappointment on him. Losing one’s parents is a pain that one learns to accept, but in reality one never quite gets over. For Roberto it was no different. A month later, still immersed in that deep sadness, he met Maria.

The Sadness

Parental loss and great suffering

The loss of a parent represents one of the most intense and universal experiences one can have. Sooner or later, most people will face the moment when they say goodbye to their father or mother. Although we know, in the abstract, that the death of our parents is inevitable, this knowledge does not lessen the pain when the moment comes. The death of a parent is a deeply painful and traumatic experience, capable of permanently transforming children of any age, both psychologically and biologically. Nothing remains the same; it is a life-changing event in a radical and irreversible way.

The Loss Of Parents And The Great Suffering

Grief processing

Grief is a universal yet deeply personal experience that can be difficult and stressful. Almost everyone goes through a loss at some point in their lives, but it is often impossible to predict how we will react, as grief is a process unique to each of us. For some, grief comes with immediate and overwhelming force, leading to intense tears or a feeling of loss, as if it were impossible to cope. One may fear that these emotions are too overwhelming to handle. However, with time, feelings of grief tend to subside and people are able, gradually, to find balance and live with their loss.

Grief Processing

The encounter that turned his life around

He was at the bar, intent on drink and reflection, when a woman approached him and asked him what was troubling him. It was the beginning of their love. Mary had a gift for saying the right thing at the right time and comforting him with words that went straight to his heart. She, too, knew what it meant to lose a family. Roberto, recognizing in her a special companion, asked her to move in together and share life working the land. Maria eagerly agreed. Eager to contribute more, she decided to buy some chickens from a friend who wanted to get rid of them. Thus it was that, step by step, they built a relationship based on solid mutual support. This complicity, the result of a genuine bond, helped them find happiness and serenity, despite the difficulties they had both faced in the past.

The Encounter That Raised Their Lives