Yesterday marked two years since my mom, Ruby left us and I wanted to share a story: A few months after my mom passed away in 2023, Simone and I flew to Syracuse like we usually do, but this trip was different. My mom had been sick for over a decade, but this was the first time we were there since she was gone. On this trip to Syracuse, one of the things we wanted to take care of while we were in town was to clean out my mom’s closets and her dresser. My Mom’s sister, my Aunt Vicenta made the trip from Brampton, Ontario to help. We knew this kind of thing would be so difficult to do by ourselves, but if we did it together, we could lean on and comfort each other.
As we sorted through her clothes, we recalled stories and shared memories, talking about her colorful sense of style and playful nature. But the most surprising thing we found was a little blue cloth bag with pink flowers on her dresser filled with slides from over 50 years ago that we all hadn’t seen. Because they were just slides, we had to hold them up to the light to see them and it wasn’t easy to make out all the details, but by holding them up to the light at just the right angle, each slide came into focus and hearing my Dad talk about these moments was a gift.
One of the slides was from the time my Dad took her to the Marine Corp ball in Trinidad, it was only their third date! Another was from the day my parents got engaged. There was even one when my parents took my oldest brother, Mark, to Trinidad at two years old. In that one my Aunt who was only about 10 years old at the time is wearing a dress that my mom bought for her back in 1969. My mom loved to dress up her baby sister or “her little papoose”, as she would call her.
We couldn’t believe that we found such a treasure and because we were together, it amplified the feeling because we were able to look back at these vibrant moments from my mom’s life when we needed it most. They say some people can light up a room, but my mom could light up a whole city. She made a beautiful mark on this world and will be forever grateful that she was my mom. ❤️
As we sorted through her clothes, we recalled stories and shared memories, talking about her colorful sense of style and playful nature. But the most surprising thing we found was a little blue cloth bag with pink flowers on her dresser filled with slides from over 50 years ago that we all hadn’t seen. Because they were just slides, we had to hold them up to the light to see them and it wasn’t easy to make out all the details, but by holding them up to the light at just the right angle, each slide came into focus and hearing my Dad talk about these moments was a gift.
One of the slides was from the time my Dad took her to the Marine Corp ball in Trinidad, it was only their third date! Another was from the day my parents got engaged. There was even one when my parents took my oldest brother, Mark, to Trinidad at two years old. In that one my Aunt who was only about 10 years old at the time is wearing a dress that my mom bought for her back in 1969. My mom loved to dress up her baby sister or “her little papoose”, as she would call her.
We couldn’t believe that we found such a treasure and because we were together, it amplified the feeling because we were able to look back at these vibrant moments from my mom’s life when we needed it most. They say some people can light up a room, but my mom could light up a whole city. She made a beautiful mark on this world and will be forever grateful that she was my mom. ❤️
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