Born in Spain, she migrated to Venezuela in 1952 when she was 25, fell in love with the country and with a Venezuelan civil engineer who soon became her husband, and had three children. Following her husband’s death in 1963, she returned to Spain with their children and lived there for two decades, though she pined for Venezuela.

“I’ve always been Venezuelan,” she said.

She returned in 1985 and has lived in Caracas ever since.

She wipes away tears from the corners of her eyes as she remembers what Venezuela used to be, recalling an era in which people dressed up before they visited Bolívar Plaza, the landmark square in downtown Caracas, an area now plagued by crime.

“Today they kill there,” she said. “Everything has changed.”

Her last visit to the site did not go well: She encountered a place very different from the one she remembered and did not like it at all. “I told my daughter, ‘Get me out of here,’” she recalled.

Still, even though she called the country’s current state “deplorable,” she has not fully given herself over to the idea of leaving. Her children have been pressing, but she remains hesitant.

“I don’t know if we are going to Spain, but we are thinking about it because we can’t live here,” she said.

Ms. Abad takes 21 different medicines and has round-the-clock nursing care, all paid for by her children, one of whom lives abroad. But this situation is unsustainable, the family explained, making Spain and its health care system a better alternative.

Ms. Abad said she understood the wisdom of this. Still, the thought of yet another migration clearly pains her. Then again, so does the thought of further weathering Venezuela’s downward spiral.

Asked if she would leave Venezuela with the hope that she could one day return, she gave the question some more thought. “I don’t think so,” she continued. “But I’ll keep it in my heart for the rest of my life.”