Today is Monday May 29th a day when people in the U.S. are celebrating Memorial Day. This is one special day to remember those who have gone before us. This for me and the Henriquez family is also a special day because on a day like today Mami Hilda, my grandmother, was born so I don’t want this day to come and go without paying tribute to her. Happy Birthday Mami Hilda!
Mami HIlda would be 93 years old today if she hadn’t gotten cancer. Elder Russell Nelson was also born in 1924 and he even likes to ski to this day. He has so much energy and his sharp brilliant mind is incredible. I can picture Mami Hilda cooking her favorite dishes for the family on Sundays and taking care of her business during the rest of the week. She used to be super busy, just like President Nelson.
From Story Worth question I get asked each week there was one about What were your grandparents like? So today I want to share what I wrote:
The only grandparents I remembered were Hilda and Carlos Henriquez. We called them Mami Hilda and Papi Carlos. I never knew my grandparents from my dad's side of the family. My dad's dad, Francisco Flores, died when he was still young and my grandmother Aminta (and believe it or not, that is my first name) was very distant from us. She was very Catholic and that is all I knew of her. I only saw her two times in my whole life. One when I was about 10 and another time when I was about to graduate from High School. She was in a wheel chair and seemed so old and fragile.
My mom's mom is another story. Mama Hilda is featured in the Daughters in Thy Kingdom Relief Society Book published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The story in the book explains how my grandmother Hilda was asked to be the Relief Society President by her branch President when she was a new member and a young mother of seven children. She felt inexperienced, unprepared and inadequate to do the job but nevertheless, she accepted the call. While she served caring for other women in the Church, she developed leadership skills and developed new gifts such as teaching, public speaking, and organizing meetings, activities and service projects. She influenced the women in the branch and taught them how to serve one another. The sisters loved and respected her. She helped other women to discover, use, and develop gifts and talents; she helped them become builders of the kingdom and my grandmother stayed faithful to the temple covenants she made.
I went to see her when she had cancer before she passed away. I could tell by the look on her face how painful the illness was and how much she wanted to go. My grandmother is one who endured to the end. All her life she had been a leader. She owned a small business that provided her with enough income to travel to the USA countless of times South America and to Europe. Her favorite was Spain. She loved having family over for dinner on Sundays after Church. Her favorite food to eat was “carne asada” and her favorite drink was Coke. She owned a beauty salon and a gift shop. People around the neighborhood came over to her store to purchase anything from hand lotions and perfumes to dresses and toys. She had a mini Target. Many of her goods were imported from the U.S. and were of good quality.
After my grandmother's passing, a friend who served along with her in the Relief Society wrote my aunt Silvia a letter saying: "Your mother was the person who taught me the way to become what I am now. From her, I learned charity, kindness, honesty, and responsibility in our callings. She was my mentor and my example. I am 80 years old, but have stayed faithful to the Savior and His gospel. I have served a mission, and the Lord has blessed me greatly."
One thing that I loved about my grandmother is that she was self-reliant. She took care of herself and her teenage children later in life when she was forced to do so. I don't remember papi Carlos, being next to my grandmother at all. They had separated even before I was born and he was too involved caring for a new young family. I do not remember seeing my grandfather all that much. He would come to some family gatherings but I never knew where he lived or what he did for a living. He was a mystery to me. What I do remember about their relationship is that it was never hostile. Somehow my grandmother accepted him the way he was and forgave him. She was kind to him. He was always welcome in her home. It never felt tense when he came to visit probably because he never showed up with his new wife and kids to anything that dealt with our family. I think that was the reason why it wasn't awkward.
Papi Carlos, bless his heart, died from a brain tumor with no assets to his name. He was always poor economically speaking. Never traveled anywhere or did anything fun the way my grandmother and her children did. When he died, I remember crying about how different his life had been compare to the rest of the family and I realized how much he missed out and how much we also missed out not having him closer. Papi Carlos and Mami Hilda are in heaven now and I hope by now they are figuring things out that they couldn't while they were on earth.
Con amor,
Vero
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