Toyi's war experience, Chapter VIII

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Wow I haven’t continued with my story lol, well I admit that I am very busy composing music and since I am doing all the string work It’s a bit more time demanding.
Well as war kept going; we were also growing up, we were living at granny’s house and sharing war experience, I missed my mother but it wasn’t clear on my head or heart this feeling I had, I didn’t miss her directly because was little time that I spent with her or at least my 3 years old memory didn’t allowed me to go back and miss what I couldn’t remember very well, all I knew was that there was an incomplete piece of me. Well not going too far I discovered what I was missing and still without putting a name to it, everything started going better and better, so what was the piece which started filling my emptiness? Oh it was called “Aunt Mary”. Aunt Mary lived in Granny’s house, she was born before my Dad (My Dad was the last one and the only boy of all my Granny’s kids) there was a young one after him but it didn’t make it to her 1st year of life (Martha), well Aunt Mary was very special, she was on her early 30’s and had a daughter who was 2 years younger than me and 1 year older than my little brother, as war issues went on and on and we all started sharing some “quality time” under our beds and locked in a bedroom, Aunt Mary became very close to us (brother and I), Her story is very sad and now that I am a grown up… understand a little better her life and why she “adopted us”(in figured sense), so…. Aunt Mary has had 2 more kids in the past; little cousins that we never had the pleasure to meet. Ralph was her 1st child…she had him on her early 20’s, Ralph grew up to his 9 years of life when a rare stomach decease touched him and took his life, by today Ralph would have been the older cousin of all of us & around late 40’s, after his death aunt Mary had another baby who also called him Ralph (honoring Ralph the 1st) but something bad happened to him too; at his 3 months of life, aunt Mary came to his Hammock on his regular noon knap and she found him dead, it was completely devastating for her, the autopsy declared that he died from a (SIDS) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
My Dad told us that Ralph II funeral was very sad and special at the same time. Dad showed us a picture of a tiny white pigeon walking like 3 feet in front of the baby casket, Dad told us that he couldn’t ignore the little white pigeon walking all the way from the church to the Cemetery and took a picture of it. I though it was awesome and a great representation of a baby pureness.

To be Continued…..