I remember with love, the joyful heart of my mother’s mother, my grandmother, Guillermina. She would always receive me with an open heart and eyes of expectation, to hug me with the happiness that only love can give.

Yes, I remember the joy of her soul, of entering her house and the chair, the soft brown velvet chair, that she would sit in, spending most of her days receiving the family. She used to hold me as a little boy and rock me to sleep. I remember being small enough to fit within her arms and my head upon her breast while she would sing to me a lullaby, a lullaby of love and peace in Spanish, for she was part Cuban. Her blood ran through me, her spirit, as she sang the words, “Sleep, my little boy, sleep, my son. Sleep, my little love, en mi Corazón, in my heart. Those were the words and she would repeat them.

I also remember that she used to gather with all of her friends in the backyard and they would laugh and talk, and talk and laugh. I imagine that one day I was annoying them, seeking my grandmother’s attention. So, she locked the gates on both entrances to the yard.

Well, I wasn’t going to have that. I remember being just three, possibly no older than four, and I filled the pathway to the left side of the house with soap detergent and made bubbles with water so high that filled the long pathway to the rear of the yard so that they could not leave. I figured if they would not let me in, then they were not going to get out.

When all of the old ladies recognized this, they began to scream. And my grandmother came running after me. But I flew out of the front yard gate and ran into the street so that she could not catch me. When she saw so, she began to laugh.

So many memories, sweet and pure. O Mina, as we called her for short, be with me now. As I also spoke of my grandmother, Nellie, I ask you both to watch and protect over me from heaven, to keep me safe for it was through your love that laid the seeds of my path of faith to where I am now. It was through your love, the love of the family, that formed me and gave me the values in the name of God to always want and to seek to do what is right in my every weakness.

I was so spoiled by love. And now God continues to spoil me with his perfect and divine love. Although I am unworthy, I share these stories of my childhood because I remember, and must always remember, who and where I came from. For their voices are within me and they are light. And they caused me to look up to heaven to say, “Where are you? Be with me.”

 I love you, my parents, who have now passed, and my grandparents and all of my uncles and aunts. May you rest in heaven and rest in peace within my heart always.