She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, I said, more than once. She reminded me of the wise old grandmother from Pocahontas. She had beautiful long black hair, dark skin full of wrinkles and eyes that still burned with a fire of life and love. She was always around and came to all of the women’s group meetings with excitement and optimism. Including the meeting last night where I told Shantonu again, ah she’s so pretty. After I sent him a text today and he came to meet me at the clinic he said, it was the one you loved? Yes. She fell off a horse. I held back my tears until we put her in the back of the camioneta, the pickup truck of her niece, leyla, my host mom. Right before we moved her from the clinic to the funeral home the church bells rung. A sound I had heard a few times before but had never known the person they rang for. This time I did. “La llevo por sus calles donde siempre andaba” she said, crying with me. I don’t know whether she was talking to me or her because of the way the spanish language is “La” and “Su” could refer to “her” or “you” formal. Didn’t matter. I don’t remember the last time I went to a funeral. I stayed with her, Tia Amelia, for hours though it didn’t feel like it. Just sitting, watching, thinking, remembering. Not much time has gone by, and we didn’t see each other everyday, but she still impacted me. It didn’t matter that most of the people stared at me, wondering who I was, maybe thinking I shouldn’t be there. We brought her to the funeral home on the cot from the clinic. She stayed that way for a few hours receiving visitors, crying hermanos, hijos, sobrinos, amigos. Later they brought in the coffin, the decorations, the dress, makeup. Her dark skin had paled and her wrinkles had faded away. She wasn’t there anymore. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen, how quickly she left.
Descansa en paz
Rosa Amelia Cedeno Mero
01/1950—05/11/2010
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