Just Another Day

I have determined that my family is...unusual. Well, I have always known this. The one year anniversary of my mother's passing is coming at the end of September.  We did not hold any kind of memorial service for my mother. For a number of reasons, I think. She was cremated, her death was so unexpected and fast, and it came right around a bunch of family birthdays and holidays. I think it felt at the time like we would be scheduling a memorial around a birthday or Thanksgiving and that just seemed like a huge bummer and we didn't want to do that to people. From August to January the majority of our family has their birthdays and of course all the major holidays.  But I do know my mother, and the Leo in her would want some kind of acknowledgment of her passing.  She would love to have a fancy room with beautiful flowers and people dressed up and speaking about her in glowing terms. I KNOW this IN MY BONES. She would be kind of insulted to just have nobody do anything at all...

I attended a Catholic elementary school here in SoCal back in the 70's. My parents were quite economically challenged at the time, and we literally lived in a rental home behind two businesses and next to a bar and a liquor store.  I didn't grow up with any kids or families around me, just adults parking in our "yard" to go to one of the businesses and me scheming constantly to locate spare coins so I could furtively purchase Abba Zabbas and Funyuns from the liquor store.  Because of the rich tapestry that is Southern California, the Catholic school I attended at the time was transitioning from what I assume was mostly white (based on the priests and nuns) to what the Catholic Church is today in California, majority Hispanic, with the majority being of Mexican heritage. I never thought about it growing up, really.  I didn't realize it until much later that the majority of my class was Hispanic. I am not going to use Latinx because I have heard from so many of the ...