Today marks a year since my loving mother passed. Not a day goes by I don’t reflect about her and my loss, what she meant to me in the deepest sense, the impact she had on the man I became. It’s only after one loses someone for good their importance is truly realized, and how empty life is without them.

Mom filled parts of my life no one could or can. She was my staunchest defender and my biggest fan as well as my harshest critic. Always supportive and encouraging of my good decisions and poor indecisions; the winding paths that often lead me to nowhere. Yet, in-spite of many shortcomings and self-inflicted failures, Mom was always there to raise me up and help pick up the pieces.

She often put me on a pedestal as most mothers do, spoke to friends and strangers alike, about my successes and accomplishments, always with joy and the full pride of a mother’s heart.

But what I miss most about Mom isn’t her accolades or her defense of me, it’s that despite my many faults as a son, a father and man, I could always count on her to love me for me, unconditionally. Her brutal honesty and stubborn spirit gave me strength and helped me through the hardest times.

I know you are now resting, have rejoined your beloved mother Rafaela and father Jose Manuel, your brother Pepe and the countless animals you so adored and dedicated a life to protecting and that thought gives me solace and a reason to keep going in your stead and continue to make you proud.

One day, it will be my turn to give the last full measure to life and rejoin you again, where I’ll never have to say goodbye again, never have to cry again, or tread life without the love of she who adored me above all…

My beautiful Mother.

R.I.P.

Adelfa decia lo que pensaba y pensaba lo decia porque asi la hiso dios mismo. Mis condolencias a toda su familia.