When my grandmother passed away I was very emotional because she represented so many things to me. She was the catalyst. She is the one that decided to come to America and leave "El Salto" - a little town in Mexico. She was filled with old school wisdom and a simple, yet deep outlook on life. She wasn't formally educated but she knew alot about life. Whenever you were full from a meal and said "man I'm full", she would always say "dale gracias a dios (thank God). Whenever I was rushed and lost stuff she would gently remind me, "Cuando tienes prisa has las cosas mas despasio" (When rushed, slow down). As she got older anytime I asked her how she was she would respond with dead pan humor: "Como el mango, vien chupado" (like a mangoe sucked up.) She was very funny.
The night we had the wake, tons of family was there as you could imagine. Seeing everyone there was comforting. Next to my grandmother's wake, in the next room, was an Asian wake. I think they were Filipino.
My mother is a teacher and had invited several people to attend in addition to the known family members. As the room became full, I notice an Asian lady walk in to my grandmother's wake. She looks a little bit lost. I tell her, "It's next door". My mother recognizes the lady and calls her over. This caused my sisters and cousins to errupt in laughter. It was loud. They found my racial profiling hillarious. "I wasn't trying to be funny. I thought she was looking for the Asian wake" I kept repeating. The damage was done.
My mother said that she apologized to the lady for my oversight. The moral here? Don't profile! unless you are in charge of security at the airport. I think somewhere in Heaven my grandma found this funny, if heaven has interpreters.
That's right, you can never assume. Good story! I can understand why your grandmother meant a lot to you, Israel!
ReplyDeleteUnderstandable. I would have tried to save her embarrassment too. Hee hee. At my mother's viewing, the dear old family friend attended to give her eulogy. We waited in the back room while the non-relatives viewed and the eulogist (is that a term?) said he needed to use the restroom. The problem was, the men's room didn't work. We offered to guard the door to the women's room and let him use it. Our family always had a wicked sense of humor and the old professor who was doing the eulogy was a very proper type of older man. He gave in and used the woman's bathroom. My brother got up and knocked on the door and called out in a woman's voice, "please hurry, Miss." The professor bolted out of the bathroom all red-faced and looking around. My brother fell over laughing and the whole family laughed, the professor joined in and the man who ran the mortuary came back there with a box of kleenex thinking we were all sobbing loudly. He said it was the first time in 40 years in the business he'd ever seen that in the waiting room. My mom would have loved it. Our goofy sense of humor was her favorite passtime to watch.
ReplyDeleteyou couldn't know
ReplyDeleteAwww, so sweet! And you know what? I probably would have done the same thing! lol Oh and I'm almost certain that God and his crew are bilingual! heh!
ReplyDeletei bet your gramma was laughing up in heaven. I love my grandma too. I hardly ever get to see her and she is getting so frail, but in 4 days time im going to seeeeeeee herrrrrrrrr!!!! she has a quiet sense of humor and says something funny then laughs quietly until all of us beg her to tell us what she found so funny!!
ReplyDeleteIt is great to read what you learned from your grandma. I think it is funny how you made that mistake. I would probably have done the same thing.
ReplyDeleteMy maternal grandma was like a second mother to me. I look forward to seeing her again.
Haha. Too funny. Your grandma must be laughing. My grandmom passed away just recently too. Last August. It was sad. She had a weird sense of humor too! But not like mine. I think I'm the crazy one. Hehe.
ReplyDeleteOooh yes, you must have been quite shamefaced! A good lesson learned young.
ReplyDelete"if heaven has interpreters."
ReplyDeletenice touch. I'm sure the lady wasn't too pissed at you anyways.