.

.

 

LUIS CHIMBO: The Love of Her Life

 

Ana Chimbo is having trouble starting a new life without the love of her life for 20 years. Her husband, Luis, worked as a receiving attendant at Windows on the World. "I have to let him go," Mrs. Chimbo said, sobbing. "It doesn't matter that I don't want to. But I have to."

Their 12-year-old son, Luis Eduardo, is having trouble, too. He refuses to acknowledge his father's death. He will not speak about it. He just goes to school, comes home, and plays a brutal computer wrestling game for hours. "When I tell him to stop, he tells me I don't love him."

Mr. Chimbo, 39, of East Elmhurst, Queens, was the center of the world for his wife and son. He played, bicycled and played basketball with his son. While she was pregnant with their son, he left Ecuador to set up a new life for the family in New York. After the boy was born, he brought his family to New York. "We were so happy," Mrs. Chimbo said.

"He makes me dream," Mrs. Chimbo said. "I told him please don't go. He said, `Don't cry anymore and let me go.' I tell him that I can't. I tell him if he goes to that place he will never come back."

.

From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times