MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. well, here we are again, another year has gone and a fresh one coming. I’m already thinking of my New Years’ resolution and I hope you are getting a head start on yours.
For me its that I want to get closer to my long-distance family.
We are so busy with our lives that we don’t bother to call family or check up on one another as much as we’d like, me included. We spend more time with neighbors than with our family. It’s so easy to go thru life without the family connection.
December 6, 2018, was my beloved cousin Juanita (Jenny to all of us) AKA Jennifer or Juana’s Celebration of life service. Her sister delivered a heartwarming and loving eulogy for our beloved sister. Jenny was our family glue and when that family member is no longer there we recognize who we’ve lost in that person and how we truly cherished what they meant and did in our families.
Her sister’s tribute reminded me of the way I felt about my sister. She was the other family glue in the family.
my cousin spoke of the special loving, caring person her sister was, Jenny was my aunts first from 3 daughters.
Now my aunt and my mom have both lost their firstborn child, and my aunt has also lost her last child as well.
which my mom describes that experience as the worst pain in the world and here my aunt has lost two of her children.
I love my aunt and I love her strength and her love for Christ. She’s so inspiring.
She was a real trooper in the ceremony and she knew she had to stay strong thru it all especially for her grandson that was uncontrollably missing his mom, although we all knew her pain.
Her youngest daughter Marisol passed on to be with Jesus in December of 2017, (in the same month as Jenny) right before her birthday. My middle cousin Marisol (the Lone Ranger I called her cus she was a beautiful little firecracker that had her own mind and much like her big sister Jenny, she’d speak it bluntly if she needed to.
She lit up any room, put a smile or made you laugh.) that was her gift. She was the family entertain
er in that sense since she was little. I remember she’d dance in the streets.
Jenny had the gift of compassion and caring. In her tribute, my cousin said her sister Jenny was the simpleton from the three just like my sister was the simpleton from us, three siblings. They were satisfied with the simple things and they lived simple lives.
my sister used to like bargain shopping at the 2nd hand mom and pop thrift stores. Being the oldest they were like our 2nd mothers 🙂 My sis would get me sneakers, (nice wetsuit bathing suit I still keep) and stuff. and she’d say “look what I found, 50 cents, 50 cents, 50 cents” and she got a kick out of doing that. She was a garage sale shopper.
I never knew why but I guess the thrill was in seeking what you can get for such a bargain price.
And she’d always think of what she can get for us.
When we lost Willie it seemed like the family gatherings, parties and BBQs were over, like we didn’t have the family event organizer and glue that kept us together.
My cousin touched everyone as she spoke of how her sister loved people and always remembered our kid’s age, reminding us how old we’re getting LOL, and reminiscing of our childhood.
“She always made it a point to ask for every one of us,” she said of Jen. Like a mother duck always counting her ducklings making sure they were all there and ok:)
So who is the glue in your family?
Life is almost like the fast-food chain. That meal that was once delicious, now it’s weakened or reduced and no longer the same. I can imagine what someone in their 80 – 90+ years of age are thinking.
While family traditions change it gets harder to keep the family together. You can’t help thinking that when that person/persons are gone will we have another glue in the family or will we grow farther from each other?
The world is changes but family should stay loving, caring, be there for each other and spend time together or communicate and stay in touch. Its one of the only things we have left that’s real.
Family is everything.
I wish and pray you all have a wonderful, MERRY CHRISTMAS, full of peace and joy in your hearts. Enjoy your loved ones and have a happy and blessed reunion.