June 8, 2017
10:35 p.m.
Lucille Maldonado 10-26-1933 to 05-29-2017
I'm adding a link to the official obituary:
I don't know what to say.
I always have something to say, but I'm pretty much at a loss for words right now.
You know me, though. I'll think of something.
I opened Facebook a few hours ago and almost immediately saw an obituary for the beautiful woman above. I kind of sat and stared for awhile, and then I sent a message to her daughter. Then I called my Mom.
Then I sat for a few hours doing nothing of consequence. Memories raced through my head. Good ones.
And it really hit me a few minutes ago that it wasn't too long ago that I wrote another blog about another beautiful Maldonado woman--Julia Maldonado Terry, Lucille's daughter. They are together now, and that's not a bad thing, is it? Reunions, wherever they might take place, are wonderful.
Once upon a time, my family moved to Green River, Wyoming. It was 1966, I was six years old and in the first grade.
My father worked with Roman, Lucille's late husband, and the Maldonado family are really the first people we got to know when we moved to town.
These were people who drew you right into their family and made you part of it. Our families camped and fished together. The grownups went out dancing. The girls. Julie and Esther, often stayed with us as our babysitters when the adults went to play.
Lucille was the first woman to try to teach me how to roll out a tortilla. Hers were perfectly round. Mine looked like the state of Florida. (They still do!) We had quite a fit of giggles over that. She had a wonderful laugh.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating--the passage of time is rapid in retrospect, and it's easy to lose touch over the years. Our lives get busy; children grow up; people move. I saw this lovely woman only periodically over the years, but even if we weren't in constant touch, I always loved her and her family.
I don't know much about her life in Texas, but I'm sure it was full of love and laughter. Lucille could have made friends with the Grinch. She was gregarious and fun-loving.
The last time I saw Lucille was a year ago, at a fund-raiser for Julie. I didn't want to quit hugging her--the years had flown by, and it had been so long! Then I watched her and my mother embracing, and the years seemed to roll away. Friendships are like that--time passes, but the love makes it all seem like time doesn't matter at all. I knew these old friends had been separated by time and miles--Texas is FAR!!--and yet, there they were, together again, and my heart was so full I thought it might leap right out of my chest. Tears flowed, but they were the tears of joy shared by reuniting family. The best kind.
Lucille was beautiful. She was a social butterfly. Her laugh could brighten the gloomiest of days.
I knew she wasn't well, and that this time was going to come. It doesn't matter--expected or not, it's always a surprise to learn that someone you love has reached the clearing at the end of the path. Somewhere deep inside, you always harbor the hope that it just won't ever happen.
On the flip side, I also know that the place she's gone to is beautiful and safe. The suffering has ended and she is reunited with those she loved and lost for a time.
Even more reassuring is the knowledge that at some point those she has left behind will see her again.
In the meantime, lovely Lucille, may you fly high. I love you so.
My Mom with Lucille, sometime in the early 1970s.
Roman and Lucille Maldonado
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