After finishing high school, he was accepted into the National Pedagogical University in the north of the city.
The day he left, Don Ernesto saw him off at the North Bus Terminal , repeating the same words over and over:
—“Eat well, take care of your health. If you need anything, write to me. I don’t have much, but you are my greatest pride.”
While Miguel was studying, Don Ernesto continued living alone. He gave extra classes to send him money. He refused any attempts to arrange a match.
—“I’m used to this life,” he said. “I just want to see him graduate.”
And then the day arrived.
Graduation day.
On the university campus, students threw their graduation caps into the air. Miguel held his diploma with trembling hands, searching the crowd for Don Ernesto’s familiar face.
But he wasn’t there.
Miguel called again and again. No answer. Just a few days earlier he had received a letter with firm handwriting:
« When you’re finished, come back and tell me everything. »
A bad feeling came over him. Without waiting, Miguel took the first bus back.
When we arrived at the housing complex, it was already night. Don Ernesto’s worn sandals were still in front of the door.
Inside, the lamp was on. Don Ernesto was sitting on the edge of the bed, with a planning notebook in his hands, as if he had fallen asleep.
The head of the neighborhood committee spoke with a broken voice:
—“We believe he was waiting for you… his heart was already weak.”
Miguel fell to his knees. He wept like never before. His diploma fell to the floor next to an old notebook.
Inside, he found pages and pages of bills for medicine, books, transportation… and at the end, a sentence written in smudged ink:
« If he grows up to be a good person, my life will have been worth it. »
The funeral was simple. Former students filled the schoolyard. The headmaster said through tears:
—“Don Ernesto didn’t have biological children. But thousands of us learned to be people thanks to him.”
Miguel decided not to return to university. He applied for a teaching position at the same high school where Don Ernesto had taught.
He lived in the same room. Every morning he would leave a sheet of paper on the desk and write:
“Teacher, I will try a little harder today.”
Years later, Miguel became one of the most beloved teachers… until one day he met Luis , a sixth-grade boy who stayed after school trying to walk on one leg, too ashamed to ask for help.
Miguel saw his own past in him.
And he did again what they had once done for him.
He accompanied him, supported him, and defended him.
One day, some cameras recorded the scene without their knowledge.
The video went viral.
Millions wept.
When asked where so much kindness came from, Miguel replied:
—“I am simply continuing what my master did not finish.”
Under an old jacaranda tree, Miguel had a plaque placed that read:
“Thank you, Don Ernesto.
You taught us to be human beings before we were students.”
And so, the circle was closed.
But kindness…
that never ends.
