Lucia

Some of you may have read my posting about my grandma, Lucia (everyone called her Lucy), back on August 15th of this year. Because I had shared a bit of her life with you at that time, I thought I should also share her passing yesterday morning. I can't say how privileged I feel to have known her and to have had her as my grandmother. She was one of the most loving and giving people I've ever known, and she always put her family first. She always told me that family is the most important thing. As hard as it was to see her go, it was peaceful, and I'm happy that my mom and I were there at the time she left us. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.

She was born in Michigan in 1919, the youngest of 5 children. Her life wasn't easy...She never had a lot of money, but she was a tough lady and never complained. She had a lot of faith and taught me a lot about having faith as well. I was lucky - I was my grandmother's only grandchild, so I got all her attention. I was also lucky enough to have her and my grandfather just 2 miles away growing up in Southern California. When my mom and my dad moved to California from New York before I was born, my grandma and grandpa shortly followed so that they could be with their daughter and future grandchild. My grandma always told me that that was the first time her mother, my great grandmother, told her to leave her so that she could be with her daughter in California. My great grandmother understood what it meant for my grandmother to be near her child, and when I moved to Northern California, my grandma knew that she, too, would not try to prevent my mom from moving to be near me as well. Luckily, my grandparents also agreed, a couple years later, to make one last move to be near us.

I have so many memories of my grandma throughout my life. She was there for all major and not so major events in my life, from the day I got married to every soccer and softball game I ever played.

She was very tenacious and always found a way to get what she wanted even though it was almost always for someone else rather than herself. Whether it was an autograph from a movie star or getting Mickey Rooney to wave to me up in the balcony after watching his musical production of Sugar Babies, which was a gift to me for my birthday back in the early 80's. As a young girl, I remember loving Mickey Rooney in the movie The Black Stallion (which my grandma took me to see multiple times in the theater without ever suggesting we see something else by the 4th time around) and of course, my grandmother adored him from the old movies; so we shared that together, and we were both so excited to see him in person at the musical.

My grandma even managed to get the frame of TV news reel that had my mom shaking the hand of Robert Kennedy during a 1968 fundraiser in Binghamton, New York, which was covered by the local news. My grandma got a fellow from the news station to literally find the frame of my mom and Robert Kennedy together and cut it from the film reel itself.

There are so many stories...Too many to list here, but it's nice to at least get a chance to share a few of them here now so that they can live on in our hearts.

Here is a picture of my entire immediate family on my wedding day in 1999. My grandma is sitting on the bottom right.

I love this picture of my mom and my grandma on my wedding day.

Love you Grandma...xoxoxoxo

Day of the Dead Collectibles

It's barely October 1st, and I'm already looking forward to Halloween! I'm not sure what changed for me, but I used to hate Halloween...You'd think it would be the other way around; that I would love Halloween as a child and hate it as an adult but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not sure exactly why...I guess primarily it's watching my son have fun with the holiday and making it special for him. I'm also just more fascinated with the holiday than I was previously. Being a lover of the state of New Mexico, and in particular the town of Santa Fe, the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, is noticeable there and just about anything that reminds me of that town is comfort to me; thus my fondness for the Day of the Dead figures and my growing collection.

So, in the spirit of Halloween and my fascination with the Day of the Dead figures, I thought I'd share some that I've collected over the years, including this Paper Mache skull I found at the Sacramento Antique Faire. How old it is, I don't know, but I liked it and I got it for practically nothing. All of my Day of the Dead figures rest on my mantel in the family room. My grandmother took one look at them and shuttered. I think her exact words were, "yick." I understand that other people don't understand it. I've told people about my little collection and most don't get it. Nevertheless, if those little buggers weren't so expensive, I'd have more! Luckily, my husband seems to like them too. In fact he bought me the surfer, shown below. We were both Southern California beach bums, and he surfed nearly every day back then...when we were young and didn't have a care in the world!

Pictured above is the first of the collection. My mom got it for me in Santa Fe on one of her excursion, which she did not take me on, thank you very much! It looks like he's hitting the bottle, but to be honest, I'm not sure.

I just love these mariachis. I think I need a horn player though, don't you? I bought these on one of my excursions to Santa Fe. I think I'd already spent so much money on these two, I didn't want to spend more for another guy in the band!

Here's the surfer skeleton that my husband gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. He got it from a fun, local Sacramento store called Zanzibar that has a great selection of these guys.

I figured by this point, you're tired of looking at my collection one-by-one, so here's a picture of the rest all together. My mom got me the nurse (?) and the kitty (I love cats), and my husband got me the Keith Richards look-alike.

If you're interested in finding some vintage figures, my best suggestion would be to go to eBay, although I would imagine it's hard to know if you're getting something that is truly vintage or not. Either way, you're getting a piece of handmade folk art. No two are exactly alike. I've also found them in different online stores by just doing a little Googling, but those tend to be even more pricey.

If anyone knows of a good resource for Day of the Dead items online, I'd love to know where!

Ta-ta for now!

~Jeannie