My Aunt Mary

I have talked many times about my dear Aunt Mary.  So I wanted to give you a short story of her life.  In the above picture you see my Mom, my cousin Juan Manuel, and My Aunt Mary. 

Aunt Mary is the third child, and first daughter of my maternal grandparents. 

This is an old picture that Aunt Mary treasures.  Here you see the entire family.  My grandparents are the ones sitting down.  Mom is the one on the left, next to my grandfather.  Aunt Mary is just behind them with her hand on her father's shoulder.  My uncles are from left to right, Gabriel, Rigoberto, Hector, Blas, Juan,

Ruben (the youngest one) and Hermenegildo Jr. ( Uncle Gildo, kneeling).

My grandparents:  Hermenegildo Sr. and Manuela.

This picture was taken in front of their house, in their native hometown, Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, MX.

I have an identical copy, in black and white just above my computer desk hutch. 

A few years ago we celebrated Aunt Mary's Birthday with a family reunion. Most of  my uncles and their families attended.

Here is a picture of her immediate family.  Only son, Salvador, his wife and children and their families.

The party was a surprise for her.  I was the one in charge of taking her to the reception hall.  We took a long way and we were stuck in traffic for a while.  Until all her family were gathered at the hall, then we arrived.   We told her we had reservations at a restaurant for just our family and her.  Imagine her surprise when the hall doors were opened wide and all the family shouted, "surprise!"

We invited all her former co-workers, from when she worked as a cook at a pre-school.  And we also invited her Pastor and his wife.  It was a treasured moment for all of us.  Hearing stories of how her friends met her. 

Rewinding back some years.  Aunt Mary was, one of the first ones to leave her family and come to live here in California.  She  married a man from India. I do not know the story of how that came about.  All I know is that he was Uncle Ray, and he brought her to live here to California. 

I do not know either how she began attending the Evangelical church, but she has been attending that same church for as long as I can remember.

Aunt Mary will take all her nieces and nephews to Sunday School.  Sometimes she will have up to 10 children all in her small little car.  This was back in the days when seat belts were not enforced as today.  But I guess, we were protected by the hand of God.  Every single one of our cousins, mentioned attending her church at one point of their life.  And they all agree that it was fun going to that church.  But as we got older we drifted away.  Then the grandchildren came along, and they also went to church with her.

What I remember most about Aunt Mary is her compassionate heart.  If she will see an accident on the street, she will ask all of us with her, to pray.  One time she even stopped and helped a woman with her grocery bags and took her home.  She was always  recruiting children to the pre-school she was working at.  She will tell her neighbors about it.  Or anyone she met at the grocery store.

Her English is not perfect, but that has never stopped her.  She became good friends with all her co-workers who were not Spanish speakers. 

Like I said before, she is a prayer warrior.  Every time someone in our family has a crisis or is ill, who do they call? Aunt Mary. 

She quickly goes to her church to pray or she calls her circle of prayer friends, and gets to praying on her knees.  Knee prayer is even more powerful. 

Many of her prayers have been answered.  One, that I am sure she is happy about is, her older grandson wanting to become a pastor.  I sure will be proud of that.  I could write a book of all the wonderful blessings God has done for many of us thanks to the interceding prayers of Aunt Mary.

Perhaps one day, I will.  Or perhaps my lovely daughter will do that.  Only God knows.  Enjoy your evening and forgive me for making my posts so long lately.

Rosario


  Marah writing here. I wanted to add some stuff about my Great Aunt Mary, as well.

First of all I love her very much. She is always praying for me to get better from my back. She calls often to see how we are all doing. One of he things I love most about her is that no matter how busy she is,  she always makes time for family. I could write all day about my G.A. Mary, but like my mom said this is a short post.

C U Next Time,
                           Marah