February 22, 2017
10:26 p.m.

In Memory

Rose E. Gardea

11-22-1939 to 02-18-2017

Tomorrow we will join together to say our goodbyes to a lovely woman who has passed from this plane into the greater world beyond.

When I was growing up, my world was divided into the "us" and the "them" all children experience. "Us" was children. "Them" was all the grownups: parents, teachers, mailmen, etc.

The world we lived in was a world of school and play. The grownups existed in the periphery. They were the caretakers, the audience, the maker of rules and the providers of meals and treats. They were our own parents, and our friends' parents.

To me, Rose Gardea belonged in that world of "them". Mainly because I didn't see much of her as I entered adulthood myself, she was locked into a time vault of sorts, forever the woman I saw as a child. I grew up and moved away, and I have lived away from town for too long for her to have moved on from that world in my memory. She will forever be the grownup, the mother of my friends and classmates. She will always be the smiling face in the sea of faces at school performances, the cheering encourager at sporting events.

Of course, I know that time passed, and her children, like me, grew up. She progressed from motherhood to grand-motherhood. I wasn't here to see all that. For me she was frozen in time; Mrs. Gardea, the mother of young adults, most likely no older than forty.  It came as a bit of a shock to me to see her children tonight, grown older. It is always a shock to know that I am not the only one who became a person well over the age of twenty-one. That time-freeze thing that happens in my mind does not hold true in real life.

Rose Gardea was a lady I saw in church as I was growing up, one who always seemed to be there. As I grew older, when I bothered to show up to Mass myself, she was one of the people I could almost always count on to be present. That sort of devotion is rare in this world, especially in these trying times; it is honorable and commendable. I'm told that her faith never wavered all these many years, that she remained someone you could count on to be there.

With her faith and love as a shining example, Mrs. Gardea guided her children to productive and compassionate adulthood. How do I know this? Because I grew up with them, and I know the kind of children and teenagers they once were. They were always kind. They worked hard. They were good kids who grew into good adults.

Now those adult children have been left without that lovely woman in their lives, and as a daughter myself, one who has been so blessed with the good fortune of having both parents still with me, I cannot begin to imagine the pain of their loss right now.

But I also know what they know: this is not an end, but a beginning for their beloved mother. She no longer suffers any pain. She knows now the love and peace of a better place. And she will be waiting for them when their time to move on comes.

To the Gardea family, I offer my condolences and good wishes. To Rose Gardea, I wish you peace forever. May you fly high.
___________________________________________________________________________________

My thoughts tonight are with the families and friends who will miss a lovely woman.

Goodnight.