A weekend celebrating my niece Maoly’s 15th birthday.

Kicking off Holy Week 2026 on March 28, the day finally arrived to celebrate my niece Maoly’s 15th birthday—she’s my brother Mao’s eldest daughter. With her, the cycle of quinceañeras has come to a close, since my daughter celebrated hers in 2017, my niece Neferet last year, and now Maoly this year—I don’t have any more nieces.

The party was held at a very beautiful place called Posada La Casita, which, although it doesn’t currently serve that purpose, is well-maintained. The owners are friends of our family, but they are currently living on Margarita Island, and her husband Peter is in Germany.

We rented the churuata for the celebration—a spacious place with tables and chairs, so we only had to rent a few extra tables and chairs. Everything was decorated early. My brother Hochiminh and my sister-in-law, the birthday girl’s mom, made the cake, and I made the centerpieces and the sweets, and I was the official photographer.

The guests started arriving around 7 p.m., and I also served as hostess at times. When it was time for the quinceañera to arrive—everything was very well organized—she arrived in her godfather’s car with her older brother. As she entered the churuata, a line of people she had chosen was waiting for her, each holding a lit red candle, which she blew out as she passed by.

Then came the part where she changed from heels to flats, followed by the accessories, the waltz—a 15th birthday celebration has many parts.

My brother sang several songs; we watched a video with photos of my niece from when she was a child; snacks were passed around, sweets were on the table, and people were dancing on the dance floor.

I took photos from time to time that would be some of the most beautiful memories of that day, forever, until it was time to sing “Happy Birthday” with everyone present and eat cake, because there are parties where they don’t sing or eat—so why even have them?

It was already dawn, and those who knew what to do changed into swimsuits and went swimming in the pool that was included in the rental, but since I was really tired, I didn’t go over there to take photos; I stayed behind singing karaoke with my brother.

By 5 a.m., everyone had left, and we went to sleep too—it would only be for a few hours, since I was going back home that afternoon, but we had to leave everything tidy and clean at my mom’s house, since the table where the cakes and sweets were made was still full of stuff.

But thank God the party went off without a hitch—it didn’t rain, the power didn’t go out, and everything turned out perfectly. It couldn’t have gone better.

Photos taken with my Sony camera.

Content translated using the DeepL app.

Cover edited in Canva.