Héctor Bello, a defender for second division side Marítimo de La Guaira, shared in an Instagram post that his wife, Andrea, died in the devastating double earthquakes in Venezuela on Wednesday. She died while shielding the couple’s one-year-old daughter, Alana, who survived and was rescued, Bello said.
Andrea’s body was pulled from the rubble, according to The Sun.
“You’ll always be our favorite heroine, Mommy. I’ll make sure to remind our baby girl how wonderful you were and how much you loved her; I’ll tell her the story of how you saved her—how you gave your own life for our daughter,” Bello wrote in Spanish, including photos of their family.
“I’ll tell her you were a brave woman who never abandoned her, even as you breathed your last. But there is one thing I can’t forgive you for, Mommy: you left my soul shattered. You left me to fight this battle alone—a fight we always said was ours to face together.
“Do you remember sending me that photo? I told you, ‘That little girl is so beautiful,’ and you asked, ‘Me too, right?’ and started laughing. I told you, ‘Yes, you’re beautiful too, but not more than me—hahaha.’ We used to laugh on the phone, and the baby would always hang up the call—like when we’d use those filters and she’d get scared, saying, ‘Daddy, no like.’ Oh, my Andrea… Mommy, you’ve shattered my soul,” he wrote with crying and heartbreak emojis.
“I’ll always remember you, Mommy—always. Remember how I used to tell you that you’d be my woman for the rest of my life? You’d laugh, so in love, and your cheeks would turn red… Oh, Andrea… Mommy, I can’t handle this, my love—I really can’t,” Bello added.
Bello directed a message to his daughter in another post telling her she needs to help him heal.
“Oh, my daughter… Mommy needs you to be strong—just wait for me a little longer,” he wrote, including a snapshot of the smiling toddler. “I need *you* to be the one to heal my heart, because right now it’s in pieces. You won’t see your daddy looking strong or smiling like always, but I promise I’ll heal and make you the happiest girl in the world.
“Now it’s just you and me—and your mommy, who will be watching over us from heaven. I know Andrea will give me strength; I know she sees what I’m going through and is suffering for us, too. But amidst all this pain, I know that if she had just a minute to say something to me, she’d tell me to protect you with my life—just as she did—and never to forget to buy you those bananas you love so much. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭.”
Bello also shared an image of his daughter with a black eye and a bandage on her arm on his Instagram Story.
Two earthquakes struck Venezuela within about a minute of each other — measuring magnitudes 7.1 and 7.5 — on Wednesday, which ranks among the strongest earthquakes to hit the country in more than a century, according to The Associated Press.
At least 589 are dead and 4,300 injured after the earthquakes caused buildings to collapse and structures to flatten.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
