My second granddaughter, for her 8th Grade Spanish class, was assigned to write a short essay about someone she knew who had passed away. She wrote about her great-grandmother, and her essay illustrates the bonds of intergenerational love and the power of words spoken in the past by someone now gone, even if it is just a few words that we remember, whose love was showered upon us through kindness and generosity. All this to me, and to others hopefully, a reminder that perhaps one day, if we are blessed, we will be the subject of an essay, or just a shared family anecdote, that reflects goodness and kindness in how we treated and spoke to others, the things that we really want to be remembered for, even if we are remembered just for the short duration of two generations, for that is enough.
Today I’m going to be talking about my bisabuela (great-grandmother) Marie. My middle name was named after her. She loved to give gifts to people, especially to her great-grandchildren. She loved the color purple, which is also my favorite color. She loved traveling. She loved her great grandchildren and grandchildren a lot. She would always take us out to eat. Her birthday was on St. Patrick’s Day. I remember celebrating Thanksgiving with her when I was little. A saying she used to say a lot was “take the cookies when you pass”, meaning to take an opportunity because you may never get it again. She used to eat ice cream with a fork. I don’t remember a lot about her but I remember drawing a picture of her and I. That picture was framed after she passed and now hangs up in my abuela’s study. I wish I could have spent more time with her, but enjoy listening to stories about her.
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