Her parents beat her savagely and gave her up for adoption: almost 40 years later she reunited with her brothers

He has just turned 47 but the marks of pain are not erased. She has small scars on her body from cigarette burns, her right eyebrow is incomplete, permanent scratches are also discovered on her arms. She looks at herself, she doesn't know what happened, although she does know who caused it.

“I lived until I was nine years old with my parents, Inés and Ricardo. I don't know if they were called that." she tells Infobae Karina Gismondi (47). There are data that she prefers to forget, she protects herself to avoid suffering. “He used violence against my mother, and when he couldn't continue he would hit me, burn me or kick me,” she adds.

Karina was born in 1974 in Azul, province of Buenos Aires. She is the middle of three siblings. Beatriz is one year older than her and Daniel, one year younger. They never lived together under the same roof. “ They separated us as boys . They were given to relatives because they didn't want to raise them, so I have no memories. I stayed living with my parents, and it was a nightmare. I had a childhood full of deficiencies, I spent nights on the street, when I could they received me at home. There was no food, no clothes…just mistreatment” .

He went to the local school when he could. In fact, except for photos or comments, I did not know that he had attended. “I only learned to read and write when I turned ten…. He had no friends, nor was he able to socialize. The context was hostile.

key night

As a victim of beatings, Karina ran away from home one night and went to a store to ask for help. "The owner saw me very beaten, and she decided to take me to the police station where she made the complaint." To corroborate the injuries, a forensic doctor was needed who never appeared. Then she had to go back to her house. "I was hurt and scared, it was the worst night ever."

The next day she went to school. “Everyone already knew that he suffered violence. They saw me with marks.” She never forgets that date. “In the middle of class they took me out of the classroom to talk to a social worker. They asked me to tell them everything, and that they were going to help me.”

Faced with judicial intervention, Karina's parents did not hesitate to sign the adoption papers. The girl spent a month in a nuns' school in the area as a pupil until her parents appeared: Julia and Raúl.

A family

At the Gismondi's, Karina discovered a new world. “ I found myself being the center of attention. A room with a large bed, toys, custom clothes and an overflow of love ", She says. The adaptation process was complex. "It was not easy to receive gestures of affection," she admits. “Every time they came over to give me a hug, she reacted by covering her head. She was not used to that, she came from a very complex background”.

With time, a lot of patience and the absolute dedication of Julia and Raúl, she felt part of a family. She gained cousins, uncles and grandparents. “Everything that I had been missing. It was a dream…". And she was able to piece together some of that dark past.

Life went on, Karina moved to Buenos Aires and she always had her brother Daniel in mind. "I knew of its existence, but I had never encouraged myself to look for it out of respect for my parents."

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In 2020 Julia died, Raúl had passed away more than a decade ago. The idea of ​​finding her brothers became stronger. “I had to do the succession procedures and I began to track down old documents. Among them appeared my original birth certificate. There emerged the data that she needed to recompose her past.

“I saw that my birth name was Gisler. The first thing I did was go to Facebook. I typed and several relatives appeared. Without thinking about it, I wrote a message, telling a bit of my story.” Several responded.

“In that I see a publication that my brother had made, where he said that he was looking for me. And he had left his cell number. My heart stopped. Because of his nerves, he tried to call and couldn't. I left him a message on Facebook Messenger, but he didn't answer me...”.

Almost two days of anguish passed. At four in the morning with insomnia came the answer. "I am your brother. Lets make videocall. As soon as I saw his face I realized the strong resemblance... I couldn't believe it. We were seeing each other after 38 years.”

Rebuild the origins

Everything that happened next was dizzying and exciting. In that talk with her brother, Karina discovered that she had an older sister named Betty. “I contacted her by message, and she instantly replied to me. ' She didn't want to die without first seeing you again.' As she was older, she remembered and knew a lot about me...”.

After a week of exchanging calls with Daniel and Beatriz, Karina decided to travel to Olavarría to see them in person.

On October 19, Karina left Retiro for Olavarría. She went with her partner, Eduardo, and she cried the whole trip. “When the bus stopped, I calmed down. I went downstairs and saw them from afar. They came running, they jumped on me. We gave each other an eternal hug, the kind you don't want to let go of."

The afternoon continued with a family lunch at Daniel's, with homemade empanadas and beer. "We couldn't stop looking at each other. We were shocked. We were trying to catch up. It's funny how alike we are. All three of us have the same mole on our necks.”

In addition to siblings, Karina gained eleven nephews. “Three are from Daniel and the others from Betina. There are two girls named after me, it was a tribute from my sister. By searching for her on Facebook she also added other members. “Uncles, cousins, everyone wants to meet me. They also confessed to me that they had tracked me down more than once without success.

After a moving week in Olavarría, she returned to Olivos. “Now we send messages to each other daily, we created a WhatsApp group called brothers. I'm going away for a few days in January. Nothing can separate us again."

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