I attended the Rosary and vigil Monday night at Elena’s
house in Alejandria. She was still there – in the
casket. She looked beautiful – almost
smiling. Margot, Blanca’s sister, said
her face did that ‘spontaneously’ when they put the first injection of
preservative liquid in her. (Yes, the
family does that).
We didn’t get to Alejandria till about 6 p.m. We had to wait for the pan dulce to finish
cooking and also wait for Elida who was coming from Virginia.
By the time we left the Pastoral House, it was getting dark – and it was
very cloudy. About a third of the way
there it started raining – and not just a drizzle – making it quite soggy for
the people in the back of the truck. We
had Elida, her daughter Lorena, Margarita and her pregnant sister Reina, and 3
women from Alejandria accompanying us. Most
of them were in the back with the tubs of sweet bread which were covered in
plastic. Fortunately, someone thought to bring a tarp so they had me stop
driving while they covered themselves. Blanca, Aminta and Reina were in the cab
with me along with a bunch of things that for the vigil could not get wet.
Alejandro was waiting for us at the turnoff to the road that
leads to the other side of the ravine where about half the community
lives. He knows I don’t like to drive
down into the ravine and then back up.
It is wicked steep and has a couple of scary turns. And it is worse when
wet. So I ended up in the back of the truck for the ride down the hill. He stopped about 30 yards from the bottom to
check out how high the water was – it had been rising. This would determine if we could even go on. Blanca and I went down to look with him. It wasn’t so bad: maybe a foot deep and not
running too swiftly. So he went back up
for the truck and scooted across the water.
Blanca and I waited for him. We
thought he would stop so we could hop back on but no. He continued on up the steep hill. Blanca and I took off our shoes and we
crossed the water on foot with Elmer’s helping hand. So much for the bug spray I doused my feet
with!
By the time we got up the hill everyone was soaked. But it was still warm out so to me, it felt
good to be a bit wet. Blanca and I
washed our feet since we walked up the hill barefooted and were quite muddy.
People got settled.
Those who were going to help prepare the snacks stayed behind in Blanca’s
mother’s house. I was told to go up to
Elena’s house and be with the people.
There were not too many people yet.
So we waited and chatted a little.
In between chatter, we contemplated the life and death of loved ones (I
did anyway – I’m not sure what others were thinking).
 |
| I did not want to use the flash ... I felt funny enough taking the photo. With the storms, there was also no electricity so all we had were the 4 candles and a gas-type lantern hung from the rafters. |
People straggled in.
By 7:30 it was time to start.
Balmore welcomed all and said a few kind words to all that were present
to accompany the family in their sadness.
Elida was asked to do the first reflection. This was followed by the first Rosary which
lasts about a half hour. Then we had
about a 10 minute rest. Then there was
another reflection done by Balmore which was followed by another Rosary. Then another 10 minute rest. Then Jesús did yet another reflection which
was followed by yet another Rosary.
We were done with the prayers by 10:30. This was the very first vigil I have ever
attended so I wasn’t sure if we were done.
But turned out we were. With the
prayer anyway.
By this time there were at least 40 people standing and sitting outside the house and between 40-50 people jammed inside
Elena’s house. “Walls” had been moved to
create one larger room. (Remember that
many walls here are just sheets or tarp separating space). There was a beautiful altar created – a table
with lots of flowers and religious items.
The casket was elevated on stands in front of that. And there were 4 very tall pillar candles on
each side of the casket and an ‘oil’ candle under. And there were flowers in abundance all around
and on top of the altar and casket. None
of the flowers were purchased – all came from people’s homes and arranged in
whatever container could be found: 2 liter soda bottles cut in half, old paint
cans with newspaper wrapped around them, etc.
At about 12:30 a.m., Cecilia came up to me and asked if I
wanted to rest a bit. I said no at
first, but then Elida and Lorena were going to rest so I decided to join
them. We walked down the very slippery
and muddy path to Celilia’s mother’s house and we were shown where we could
rest. There were 2 beds in one of the
‘room’s. We all needed to avail
ourselves to the bathroom facilities and we went together to share flashlights. Idalia had baby wipes so we could clean our
feet. We slept in our clothes. By the time we got settled in, it was well
after 1 a.m. Elida’s phone kept going
off – it rained really strong a couple of times (and is like thunder on the
lamina roofs), the roosters sang (loudly), and people were coming and going so
it wasn’t a huge sleep we got. But it
was more than some people got. I was
grateful for the rest. By 4 a.m., Elida
decided we needed to go back up to Elena’s house to accompany the family once
again. So up we popped, put on our
sandals, made a trip to the bathroom and began the slippery trek back up.
Most of the people had left. People had come from El Recreo,
Berlín, Hacienda Nueva, Loma Alta and of course, Alejandria. Most of the family was still there – and the
young men who were going to help get the casket across the ravine to the main
road to the funeral truck. Blanca,
Idalia, Cecilia, Margarita, an uncle were inside the room with the casket. The young men were outside the door playing
cards.
By 6 a.m. it was time for some of us to leave. Blanca, Margarita, Reina (the pregnant woman)
and I took the tubs and a few other things back to the Pastoral House. We also brought a half dozen young men and
dropped them off at the cemetery because they needed to get started digging the
hole.
I’ll save the rest of that for the next blog …
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