During the past four years, I have lost several Aunts and Uncles. These are the individuals, together with grandparents, that make up the most important part of one's life -- at least it did for me.
The first to go was Aurora (Lola) Morales. Just minutes before she suffered her fatal stroke, she was conversing on the phone with me and my parents. Upon hanging up the phone, she screamed twice in agonizing pain, and was gone forever. Almost to the date a year after, my Aunt Genoveva (Baby) Escobar died in a blaze of fire. She was burned to absolutely nothing. After that, my Aunt Adela Morales, was paralyzed from the neck on down from a fall in her beautiful bathroom. For over a year she has been in a nursing home completely dependent on the staff for all her needs, even the most basic of them. In that time, her husband, Tony Sr, became totally blind from diabetes and eventually died from a fall in the house as he could no longer see. Adela used to cry everyday that she wanted to go home, but now there is no one to go home to. Her last months and/or years of retirement are now in an imprisoned body and alone as patients are not allowed to have phones and cellphones in the nursing home. They only have permission to lay there and rot away. Yet another year later, my Aunt, Edelmira (Mirita) Escobar, died as she was waiting for her husband to finish getting dress for church. She was proudly ready, had her pocketbook beside her, and her rosary in her hands, when she yelled for her husband once, and was also gone forever. Most recently, my Uncle Frank (Frankie) Morales died from prostate cancer that spread all the way to his brain. His last two months were spent in a hospital, in coma, in horrific pain, and unable to say goodbye to his wife, kids, and grandchildren. His first wife, Carmen Delia, ironically died alone in her apartment from a silent heart attack just two weeks prior.
I feel that a huge portion of my heart has gone with them. Their photos appear here as I last saw them in 2005 -- 2007. Apparently, without our knowledge, it was also our farewell. God bless you all and for the wonderful memories that you have given me.
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