The Story Behind a Poem This Teen Found by Her Late Grandmother Will Make You Cry

For Jasmine Dena, 19, her late grandmother, Elisa Guerrero Dena, is her biggest inspiration. They had an unshakable loving bond, and her grandmother was the mother Jasmine never had. Tuesday night was especially hard for Jasmine, because around this time six years ago is when her beloved grandmother lost her battle with cancer. But while looking through some items in her basement, Jasmine found a book of poetry authored by her beloved abuela, and one of the many poems written was in her honor. Jasmine read the poem, and couldn’t hold back the tears.

“When I found the poem book I sat in my kitchen, I fell to the floor when I saw my name was the title of one,” Jasmine Tells Yahoo Beauty. “I couldn’t believe it.”

It wasn’t until Jasmine found the book that she had any idea her grandmother was a poet. She knew her grandmother was a strong woman and an educator loved by all her students, but a poet? Jasmine had no idea.

“I feel this was her way to let me know everything’s going to be fine,” Jasmine says about finding the poem. “The poem is so empowering and encouraging, I get chills just knowing that after all these years she’s still looking out for me.”

“I was feeling a lot of anxiety and insecurity, like many teens my age. Finding this gave me back a lot of strength,” she says. “My abuela was the glue that held my family together and this is her way of saying we need to be like that again.”

Jasmine has already contacted her grandfather, aunts, and uncles to let them know about the poem.

Dena is currently studying political science and hopes to one day be a lawyer, a career path that was also influenced by her grandmother. Her grandmother moved to California from Mexico at the age of 19. She got married, had children, but still kept her eyes on having a career.

“She knew she wanted to help others, that’s why she became a teacher,” Jasmine says.

While the poem was written in Spanish, Jasmine has translated it for us below:

Jazmine

She sowed the seed in Spring,
turned it into Winter into a beautiful girl.
It was the reward of the sweet waiting, for me,
it was of God, the most precious work.
Tersed vanilla skin, brown eyes and cinnamon,
eyelashes so immense that they look up to the sky,
sweet and melodious voice, like a siren song
and the moonlight cast it into her hair.

The sweetest smile on her strawberry lips,
is drawn on her face when the day dawns
and he has in his hands a dawn prey
to light my life with rays of joy.

She is the princess of the fairy tales,
the ambassador of coquetry.
The one that turns the stories into ballads
and are to my ears like the Ave Maria.

If you understood one day what my verses say,
it would be like touching my soul with your fingers,
like wearing the necklace you made with kisses
and waking God at dawn.

You are a girl enchanted by the magic of the grandmother,
you will always be to her sweet Cinderella,
her eternal butterfly that blooms in spring
and you will be the reason for her in her sad existence.

For my granddaughter Jazmine, my beautiful butterfly, my eternal Cinderella.

The poem is truly special and the Twitterverse seems to agree.

“I want to make her proud,” Jasmine says. “To have this happen is so amazing I still feel the connection I had with her, my family is gonna be happy to hear about it.”

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