In Loving Memory

So it was supposed to be a wedding in Prescott, Arizona and it turned out to be a funeral in Los Angeles weekend. so in more ways than one the weekend was a bitter sweet one. Something happens in my family that may not happen in other families but as my daughter in law wrote in one of her blog posts, once someone makes it into our family there is no way out. This proved true with a long time family friend that unfortunately left us last week and now rests besides the Lord. This wonderful 83 year old lady gave her life to raise her kids. and never looked back. When my sister married her son and she met us we immediately became family and actually saw her like a grandma.

There have been many occasions such as quinceaneras and weddings were her family and ours get together and just like that between the two families we can easily fill up a good size hall and we all see each other as family even though the only link between us is my sister and her husband.

That's why when we heard the sad news we knew that we had to go and be with the family. My brother in law had been there for the past three weeks assisting the siblings in taking care of their mom. My sister, her kids and my mom all left on Thursday, and I left on Friday afternoon.

I left a little later than I was planning on leaving but still made pretty good time. I must confess the last hour before I got there was grueling as I was tired and getting sleepy too, but I started singing and drove with the windows down for a while, and it was cold that night so that helped. My reward when I got there was that I had my tacos from our favorite place Rambo's Tacos waiting for me. My wonderful niece whom recently adopted me as her nino (Godfather) made sure to go get some as she knew I would not be there on time.

Needless to say, after I ate my tacos I took possession of my couch and pillow and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning we all attended the wake and funeral and then accompanied the family for a few hours. As it should be the gathering soon became a celebration of life. A life that gave so much and asked for so little in return. Her legacy will remain for many years to come, her kids, grand kids, ang great grand kids will make sure of that. As for me, I was just glad I had the honor to be there to give her a well deserved last good bye.

May she rest in peace.

Here is my sister Elena, Dona Elena, and my brother in law Alfred. Picture taken circa 1970 something.

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