Alfonso’s Neverending Death- Part I

The following is the true story of a man who made a deal to sell his life for one million dollars, payable to his widow and children.

All events mentioned in this series are true. Some names were changed, others have not. Father John Grigus, O.F.M. was the Rector of the St. Maximilian Kolbe Shrine at “Mary town” in Libertyville, IL, and one of several witnesses to this true Story. Father Grigus died in 2017 in Chicago IL. Our Gratitude and prayers for his intervention in the case of a suffering soul in Purgatory will never be forgotten.

My Brother-in-law, Alfonso Valencia

In 1970, in a travel agency in Long Island, New York, I met a young lady from Colombia. Her name was Inez Piedad Amaya. It didn’t take long before we got married and moved to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. At that time, my wife’s sister, Fernanda Isabel, had already been married for five years to Alfonso Valencia, thirty-one years old classic Latin American macho: brash, pompous, swaggering, and apt to look down on people. Whenever the whole family got together, Alfonso’s showiness got on my nerves—big-time.

When he was holding forth, everybody else shrunk to the role of potted plants or table decorations. His behavior upset me greatly, so I avoided him as much as I could. After a while, he started to notice my reserve and actually sought out my friendship. Then we gradually got to know one another better. As it turned out, there was actually a sensitive and intelligent person buried under all that bravado. Alfonso was beginning to fascinate me. In fact, over time, we actually became good friends. The following story took place exactly as I am about to tell you.

On September 21, 1980, a bright sunny day in Bogotá, Don Alfonso Vallejo exited his luxurious penthouse. With a measured step, he headed over to the elevator and rode down to the lobby of the well-guarded building, located in the prosperous northern part of the Colombian capital.

Exiting from the elevator, he scanned around for Juan, his uniformed guard, whom he had personally hired to ensure security. When he saw his employee, Don Alfonso calmly but decisively said, “Please give me the pistol, Juan.”

“Si, patron!” the man replied obediently. The guard turned around, opened a cabinet, and unlocked a metal drawer. He removed a highly polished police revolver, a Smith & Wesson 38, which Alfonso had given the guard a few months earlier for safe-keeping. Alfonso grasped the gun and flipped out the cylinder to make sure the pistol was actually loaded,

In South America, a subordinate would never ask a superior “Why?” The absolute obedience customary in that culture would never permit such a question. So Juan just snuck a peek at Don Alfonso as the patron turned on his heel and silently walked back to the elevator.

Alfonso returned to his exquisite penthouse, which he had purchased for his family and himself a few years earlier for $800,000. In addition to this penthouse, Alfonso also owned four other penthouses in the same building, which he was renting out to well-to-do Colombians.

The patron opened the door to his residence and walked down the hall, decorated with exquisite works of art, as was the rest of the penthouse. As always when he walked down this hall, Alfonso glanced at the resplendent portrait by Alejandro Obregón. Alfonso was proud of this famous painting, which he had bought from the master himself in the artist’s Barranquilla home for $200,000.

Suicide

Alfonso strode into the bedroom that he shared with his wife Fernanda who had been staying with her parents for the past two days. He got undressed and entered the large bathroom, gripping the gun in his hand. He opened the shower cabinet that was embellished with gold décor, stepped in, and closed the heavy crystal doors. Then he stuck the barrel of the revolver deep into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

A few hours later, at 2 pm, Alfonso’s 10-year-old daughter, Maria Fernanda, came home and found the bloody corpse of her father sprawled in the bathroom. He was only 41 years old. Alfonso had left nothing in his life to chance—most certainly not the time of his own death. Everything he had done had been meticulously planned and well thought through. Alfonso had never let anyone take the Law of Action away from him. Not even in adversity and tragedy.

Who Was Alfonso Valencia?

Alfonso Valencia was born and raised in Bogotá, just like his father who had originally been a small-time farmer. Whenever people had asked Father what he did for a living, he explained that he was a “commerciante,” a businessman whose exact type of business is unclear.

Initially, Father was not fortuitous, but he did manage to keep his family afloat with a steady flow of projects and dealings. Alfonso learned a lot from his dad. Keep first things first. Stay practical. Be industrious, determined, and keep at it. Even as a young man, Alfonso had always wanted to hit it big.

Alfonso ran away at 16  but failed to make it rich. Two years later Alfonso made his second attempt. This time Alfonso headed for the center of Colombia’s agriculture, a region known as the Llanos Orientales or Eastern Plains of Southern Colombia. This was an arid region east of the Cordillera of Bogotá. In those days, the llanos or prairies, as they are known in North America, were mostly uncultivated.

Tropical Agriculture

Even though Alfonso had no experience in tropical agriculture, he was convinced that it was his future. He also realized that he would first have to know the lay of the land. So, drawing on the little bit of money he had borrowed from his brother, Alfonso found an inexpensive place to stay and explored the region for weeks in La Chiva, a rickety cross-country taxi bus. Squashed in between grunting pigs, squawking chickens, and Indios clutching pitiful burlap sacks, the occupants of the ramshackle bus bumped over dusty and sandy trails and through deep mud holes.

This was pure torture for a middle-class guy from the big city but Alfonso patiently endured it all because he was focused on that one goal: To get rich. And rice would be his ticket to the Big Time if only he could find the right kind of soil in which to grow it. After all, besides potatoes and corn, rice was and is Colombia’s seven South America’s—main staple. As such, supplying rice to a hungry and steadily growing population would be his straightest shot at fame and fortune.

And time would prove Alfonso’s strategy right.

Over time, the young man got to know the backcountry better than almost anyone before him. In the llanos, the soil was uneven, hard, and rocky—basically not very well suited for rice agriculture. In fact, in some areas around Villavicencio, the soil was as hard as concrete. The merciless sun and almost total lack of rain had transformed this land into a stone desert. Alfonso realized the only way to grow rice out here would be to use every ounce of his intelligence and ingenuity—and change location.

Eventually, he found the soil he was looking for some 190 miles (300 km) south of Villavicencio. In fact, this soil had never even been used agriculturally. This soil was dark—almost black—and richer in minerals than that depleted dirt he had been stuck with up to now. Alfonso was able to lease the land cheaply.

And, miracle of miracles—his plans were starting to work. After much toil and after depleting almost all the capital he had borrowed, Alfonso managed to plant his rice seedlings. And, lo and behold, they were starting to grow. With every day that God provided, the dark soil was turning greener and greener. After only a few days, the little seedlings worked their way through the topsoil and saw the light of day.

After one hundred and fifty long days of waiting and fretting, Alfonso was able to reap his first crop without any major problems. His rice had managed to dodge storms, hail, and pests. In the process, Alfonso had been able to provide dozens of poor farmers with work and he was now the proud owner of many tons of high-grade rice.

Alfonso clung to his dream. He had ditches dug to irrigate his fields with water from the Meta River. While the irrigation part did not quite pan out that first year, he was able to expand his rice cultivation bit by bit.

Get Rich

So, Alfonso leased more land, bought heavier equipment, and continued to perfect his irrigation system. His work was being blessed. Whatever he set out to do, went well. Consequently, his reputation in the region grew year by year, too. Local politicians and other landowners began to seek his advice, the common people loved him.

Holy Masses were said for him in church, children were named after him. Local newspapers started to take an interest in his work and the news of his success started to spread far beyond Villavicencio. After five years of extremely hard work, Alfonso was starting to become affluent. Fame and fortune were knocking on Alfonso’s door.

From time to time, Alfonso visited his family in Bogotá. Even there he noticed that his reputation had grown. His father and his siblings were proud of him, parading him around and boasting, “Look at this guy–he’s got what it takes.”

Falling in Love

Next door to Alfonso’s parents there lived a well-to-do family, the Amaya’s. They had three extremely attractive daughters who as well were already starting to take an interest in the successful young man. The pater familias of the Amaya’s came from a well-to-do Medellin family and his wife was the daughter of Mariano Ospina Perez, the former Minister of Development. As far as the common folk was concerned, the Amayas were aristocrats and the three daughters were being raised accordingly, as was the custom in Latin America.

As such, the girls attended a strict Catholic boarding school up to the age of eighteen and were educated in the fine arts. In these circles, practical skills for girls were deemed unnecessary, as it was usually not difficult to find well-to-do young men who would marry them and provide them with all the luxury the girls were accustomed to.

It went without saying that the newlyweds, too, would have servants in the home. And so the young women would move seamlessly from a carefree education to a carefree marriage. Only the households as such changed, with the new husband holding the same position in the family the girl’s father had once held. Such was the patriarchal society: The husband was the ruler over all. The wife’s main task was to bear children.

Alfonso quickly fell in love with the prettiest of the Amaya daughters—Fernanda Isabel. She, too, was impressed by Alfonso and returned his love. It was only natural that they would get married before long, only a few months after they had met. Mere days after the lavish and luxurious wedding, the young couple moved out to the country, out to where Alfonso made his money. Those were relatively good times in Colombia.

The political landscape was more or less stable, and the young couple was able to spend a few beautiful years. Within three years, Fernanda Isabel bore two children: Maria Fernanda and Diego Alfonso. Both parents were pleased to have such beautiful children. Alfonso’s life revolved around hard, hard work. He continued to buy more land, perfect his irrigation system, and take out larger and larger loans to pay for these new investments.