Today I want to tell you about a wonderful woman that sculptured who I am today.
My Grandmother Catalina.
I grew up calling her Mom. She cured my illness; she quenched my thirst and fed me what we could afford; she whooped my ass when I misbehaved; she was proud of me for every award I won at school, and she made sure that I had the necessary to get an education. That was her dream, for me to go to school. Up to the last moment, her wish was to better myself. And although there is so much to do, I still want to share this with all of you, whoever you are, friends or random readers, my mom has been gone for three years and these memories fill my heart with mixed emotions, and my vision blurs.
My mom lost her husband when the youngest of their 11 children was a toddler. She never married again, or dated to the least. She dedicated her life to work and raise the rest of the kids she still had at home, and that is what she did. The times were different, and her iron fist comes from traditional and probably uneducated background, but she managed, and she raised us the best she could. Today, seven of my uncles live with their wives and have raised their children the same way our mom did; of course they have gone through difficulties in their marriages, but they worked through it, and keep going strong. The four females she raised, one of them being my birth mother, took a different paths toward their point where they're at now, but they made it, and today they stand proud to be who they are, and the family. And it is a pretty big family indeed, and I wish I was close to them, and have a big Mexican reunion, but we are all spread out over the country, and after Mom's passing, it feels like the glue has wore off. It's not the same. Maybe because, obviously, Mom is gone and we feel her absence when we're together, but wouldn't that be what she'd like us to do? To stick together as if she were here? Not that we are strangers now, no, but... I don't know. Maybe I am looking into this a little too much, and I am a little too much of a sensitive person. Who knows.
My point is to share the legacy that my Mom left. An amazing woman that worked like a man, in the fields, raised kids and shaped them up when they tried to act out, and took me in when she didn't have to. The story behind my birth changes from person to person, but a wise advice was given when I tried to research the truth; what is it to me what happened twenty years ago? I am alive, and I am a pretty decent human being. I have good values, health, and work ethic. I should be just thankful, and live on. So I guess, if there is anything to get out of this post is, every now and then we should take a minute to step back and look at the big picture in our lives, and be appreciative of what we have and the people that stands with us. Some times that's all it takes to realize that life isn't bad after all.