To know someone, it takes time. I only knew Grace 38 years of my life. She was my aunt, the younger sister to my mother. I got to know Aunt very closely since our family got together, oho say 3 times a week. I can say now, to know Grace, is to love Grace. Merriam-Webster dictionary likes to define the word Grace as a noun. She definitely was. It states one of elegance, beauty, and smoothness of form or movement. Grace was that. She was in the pep squad 1970 for elegance and beauty, and she played first base in 1974 for St. Jude Softball team for smoothness of form. Little did she know their was an outfielder with his eye on her. Jose H. Pena. The dictionary also states politeness, dignified, and of decent behavior. Grace was quite polite, she would offer you the shirt on her back. She was dignified in that she worked for the state of Texas as a case worker 24 years. Now about this decent behavior, to quote my Aunt of even two weeks ago “Don’t be annoying Edward.”. That should give you some reverence as to how well she expected decent behavior. The dictionary also states: the generosity of spirit, a capacity to tolerate, accommodate. Graces generosity of spirit never ceased to amaze us. She was the very definition of the cliche “Amazing Grace”. Grace had a capacity to tolerate. Grace fought illness for her final twenty years. Braver than giving up, she showed us to strive on. Grace was very accommodating. Alongside her husband, she accepted to take care of her elderly parents Joe Ruben and Irma Castillo from 1989-1996. In the highest reverence of hospitality, my grandparents passed in our care thanks to Grace. The Christian bible sums her up like this “Grace is the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it”. I believe my Aunt, was given the love, because she earned it in His eyes, and she showed it to us. In 2009, I was blessed with having a baby girl. I had a name in mind already and so did my wife. When we said the name, we both decided to name our child Chloe Grace Flores. My aunt Grace was thrilled. I am a designer by trade, over the week, my family spent some time gathering photos. I was able to collect the photo as elements to a design. As a designer you always want to put emotion into your work. I had to work the opposite. I began to construct them as objects, I tried very hard to be objective with them, but I couldn’t. You see once an element is put next to other elements, it begins to create context. And once you have context, it is so hard not to put emotion into it. If a picture is was worth 1,000 words, then I was staring at 117,000 words. In greek mythology Grace was considered 1 of 3 sister goddesses who were the givers of charm and beauty. Grace has Marcy And Irma for sisters of 3. On her 25th anniversary we commemorated Joe and Grace’s wedding with a party. As a keepsake I gave her a plaque of her wedding photos. She accepted the gift with tears of joy. And she told me “I will never forget you.” I know have to keep my part of the deal. Not to forget her. I like to quote Willie Nelson. To me Grace was an “Angel flying too close to the ground.” She grew feet for 62 years. and Joe mended her broken wings so she may fly again. Joe Pena has been the unsung hero for us. The saying behind every man is a good woman, has no bearing. In this case, behind every good woman, is a great man. For love is the greatest healer to be found. So now he has mended her wings. So she has left us, because she needs to. And we still remember. Fly on, Tia fly on. I’d rather look up than see you down. Now she can fly again doing what she did best, and that was to look over all of us. And we better not get outta line because our Angel might have to grow feet again.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:06:37 +0000